'We just want to be a world-class college,' says NSCC president as college looks to the future

As university officials across the province continue to work through what the fallout of Bill 12 means for them, the president of the Nova Scotia Community College knows what it does not mean for his institution.

"We have no aspirations to become a university," Don Bureaux said in a recent interview.

"We just want to be a world-class college."

Although much of the attention Bill 12 — An Act Respecting Advanced Education and Research — received as it was being debated at Province House centred on its ramifications for the province's 10 universities, the bill also made changes to Research Nova Scotia and the Community Colleges Act, the latter of which governs the NSCC.

Those changes include giving the responsible cabinet minister the power to give binding directions to the NSCC board respecting policies, programs of study and services, and property, revenue and business affairs of the college.

Changes not a surprise

Bureaux said none of that caught him or anyone else at NSCC by surprise because of conversations they were having with government officials in the lead-up to the Progressive Conservatives introducing Bill 12 this past winter.

"Quite frankly, many of the changes that affect our act were housekeeping," he said.

"We were operating under those rules of engagement anyway."

To observers, perhaps the biggest change in Bill 12 for NSCC is the ability to grant undergraduate degrees if authorized by the provincial cabinet and certain criteria are met.

Bureaux said it's becoming more common for colleges across the country to grant degrees, but if it happens at NSCC, it would be focused on workplace-driven needs and done in a way that does not cut into the work already happening at universities.

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He gave examples of degrees related to advanced manufacturing, mining operations and the ocean sector as some of the offerings at other colleges.

"For the most part, they're very applied degrees that are conducive and aligned with the applied learning environments that exist at colleges," said Bureaux, adding that conversations at NSCC about what could be offered there are only just beginning.

"Right now there's no definitive plans as to what degrees we'd offer and we'd want to be very aware of the 10 universities in this province that we work very closely with — that do a great job — to make sure that we're adding and not duplicating or competing with the pre-existing degrees that are in the province."

Even without adding degrees to the college's offerings, there are annual reviews to ensure the programs that are available meet the needs of students and the province more broadly.

Always evaluating program offerings

Officials at NSCC recently announced the music business program would be placed on hold and several campuses will not offer the business administration diploma program in the coming semester. In both cases, low enrolment was a driving factor in the decision.

"We make sure that we have programs that students want to enrol in, that the economy needs in terms of workforce development and that those jobs are contributing to the priorities of the province of Nova Scotia in terms of where the economy or society is going," said Bureaux.

In recent years, that's meant a "dramatic increase" in demand for training in the health-care and skilled trades sectors. Bureaux said students are coming to NSCC with the expectation that when they complete their training there will be a good job waiting for them in Nova Scotia.

The provincial government has called on the college periodically to increase opportunities for programs such as continuing care assistants, early childhood education and in the construction trades to meet pressing employment needs in the province.

Bureaux said the determining factor in whether those programs can accommodate more people comes down to a combination of available space, faculty and, in the case of skilled trades, available apprenticeship agreements.

In some cases, program expansion can be accommodated through creativity.

Some long-term care facilities that need workers have partnered with the college to provide learning space for students who could go on to become future employees.

"They actually can be training on site with dedicated classrooms at their facilities that would allow for that integrated learning to happen," said Bureaux.