REPORT OF THE COLLEGE-UNIVERSITY CONSORTIUM COUNCIL

2001-2002

Submitted to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities

Prepared by the College-University Consortium Council December 2002

February 14, 2003

The Honourable Dianne Cunningham, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, Mowat Block, 900 Bay St., Toronto, ON M7A 1L2

Dear Minister:

It is my pleasure to submit to you the Report of the College-University Consortium Council, 2001-2002. This is the fifth report of the Council to the Minister since its inception in June 1996. The Consortium Council is appointed jointly by its sponsors, the Council of Universities, the Council of Presidents of the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. The Council selects and manages Consortium projects in support of its primary mission.

The report describes the mission, goals and objectives of the CUCC. It outlines work carried out in support of the ‘Port Hope Accord’ (the Ontario College-University Degree Completion Accord) and the Ontario College-University Transfer Guide (OCUTG). It also identifies the opportunities and challenges ahead for college-university collaboration.

The Council thanks the Minister and the Ministry for the support received in carrying out its mandate.

Yours truly,

Elizabeth J. MacLennan, Interim Director, College-University Consortium Council

cc: Members, CUCC

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Table of Contents

Mission of the CUCC

CUCC Mandate for 2001-2002

Results Achieved in 2001-2002

Ontario College-University Transfer Guide

CUCC Forum

Research Projects

Opportunities and Challenges Ahead in College-University Collaboration

Auditor’s Report for 2001-2002

Appendix A: CUCC Forum: Summary Proceedings, March 26, 2002

Appendix B: From Diploma to Degree: A Study of the Movement of Ontario Students from College to University through Formally Articulated Agreements. January11, 2002.

Appendix C: CAATS: Out-of-Province Transfer Agreements and Summary: Out-of-Province Degree-Completion Arrangements

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Mission of the CUCC To facilitate, promote and coordinate joint education and training ventures that will: aid the transfer of students from sector to sector; facilitate the creation of joint programs between colleges and universities; and further the development of a more seamless continuum of postsecondary education in Ontario

The Consortium Council The Consortium Council is composed of one representative from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, three representatives from the Colleges and three representatives from the Universities.

The Council members are:

Dr. Douglas Auld, Co-Chair, President, Professor Bonnie Patterson, Co-Chair, President, Ms Barbara Taylor, President, Canadore College Ms Cindy Hazell, Vice-President Academic, Ms Jessica Hill. Assistant Deputy Minister, Postsecondary Education Division, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Dr. Robert Rosehart, President, Wilfrid Laurier University Dr. Fred A. Hall, Associate Vice-President (Academic), McMaster University

Departing members 2001-2002: Dr. Peter George, President, McMaster University Mr. Michael Hill, President, Northern College Dr. Rowland Smith, Vice-President Academic, Wilfrid Laurier University

Former members of the Council include: Dr. Tim Easley, Co-Chair, formerly, President, Dr. David Marshall, Co-chair, President Dr. Susan Clark, formerly Vice-president Academic, Dr. Marcel Hamelin, Rector, Mr. Gary Polonsky, Co-chair, President, University of the Ontario Institute of Technology Dr. Dennis Mock, formerly Vice-President Academic, Dr. Ross Paul, President, Dr. Tony Tilly, formerly Senior Vice-President, Seneca College Dr. Tim McTiernan, Co-Chair, formerly, President, Canadore College Dr. David Atkinson, Co-Chair, President, Brock University Ms Terry Dance-Bennink, formerly Vice-President Academic, Sir Sandford Mr. David Trick, formerly, Assistant Deputy Minister, Postsecondary Education Division, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities

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Mandate for 2001-2002 The CUCC Mandate from 2000-2001 was carried forward to 2001-2002

To promote, facilitate and coordinate college and university joint ventures to achieve agreements that provide a continuum of learning opportunities in Ontario’s postsecondary system, such as the Ontario College-University Degree Completion Accord of March 26, 1999.

The CUCC fulfills its mandate through the leadership and coordination of activities that bring together institutional representatives from both sectors and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities who will effect the development and enhancement of collaborative programming.

The CUCC will publish the Web-based Ontario College-University Transfer Guide, maintaining its currency and relevance through regular updating and by the establishment and maintenance of standards for the inclusion of agreements in the Guide.

Goals for Advocacy Communication • To provide a forum for communication among all stakeholders • To facilitate access to current and accurate information on transfer opportunities Facilitation • To provide, through the Accord, a framework for the provision of transfer opportunities • To identify transfer areas not currently recognized and covered • To develop a network of contact representatives and relevant stakeholders Research • To facilitate research projects which support the mandate of the CUCC • To aid in the provision of information and data gathering which address issues such as demand, performance, areas of collaboration, agreement models, student profiles

RESULTS ACHIEVED IN 2001-2002

CUCC Forum Representatives from both postsecondary sectors participated in a highly successful CUCC Forum on College-University partnerships in Toronto on March 25, 2002. The Forum presented a range of models that exemplify the most recent and innovative developments of college-university relationships in Ontario in light of the changing environment in postsecondary education, and it offered an exploration of the future role of the CUCC.

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Presentations by Ontario College-University partners described five of Ontario’s notable recent achievements in collaborative postsecondary education: the /Humber, Wilfrid Laurier University at Brantford with , the collaborative programs of Canadore College and Nipissing University, at and the collaborative programs and projects of Seneca College and .

Presentations by representatives from other post-secondary educational systems, British Columbia, the Maritime provinces, and the United States described their models and achievements -- each reflecting a different history of postsecondary education and providing a useful basis for comparison for Ontarians. Forum participants indicated that they were very interested to learn of the barriers to overcome and pitfalls to be avoided, as well as tips for success. The British Columbia presentation was deemed by participants to be the most relevant and interesting.

In the keynote address, the Deputy Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities stressed the importance of college-university collaboration in the creation of new articulation agreements in high affinity areas. He identified trust and mutual respect as essential for collaboration. He also identified the provision of clear, accurate information to students about credit transfer as a priority for the CUCC.

The Forum closed with a university president and a college acting president, who considered the opportunities and challenges in the future for collaboration between the two Ontario postsecondary sectors. Both referenced the rapid pace of change in the postsecondary system and issues of funding. And both predicted that further collaboration between the sectors will likely be most often on an institution-to-institution basis. Good will and respect were underscored as essential to successful collaboration.

The Forum was attended by 113 participants, including the speakers. An evaluation of the Forum by participants indicated a very high level of satisfaction with the speakers and the information provided. The participants requested future forums of a similar nature, and with an added opportunity for discussion by groups with issues of common interest related to college-university transfer.

( See Appendix A: Forum Summary Proceedings)

The Ontario College-University Transfer Guide The Ontario College-University Transfer Guide provides an online searchable database describing credit transfer agreements between Ontario’s colleges and universities.

The primary purpose of the Transfer Guide is to provide up-to-date information to students and counsellors about transfer opportunities between Ontario’s colleges

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and universities. The year has demonstrated that the Guide also has value to researchers who require timely information about transfer opportunities for the purposes of reporting and planning.

In April 2001, an updated version of the Guide was launched. Among the upgraded features is a report generating capability that allows the CUCC to monitor the level of use of the Guide’s various capabilities as well as the number of viewings of its various elements. Thus it can be reported that use of the new Guide has increased steadily since its launch in April 2001, with an average 25% gain in the number of user sessions and hits to the home page over the nine months (April to December) in each of the two years that can be compared.

In its nine months of operation in 2001, the OCUTG logged 35,033 user sessions, with 104,950 searches executed and 345,995 pages viewed. There were 25,389 hits to the home page.

Over the 12 months of 2002 the OCUTG logged 56,331 user sessions, with 156,677 searches executed and 531,363 pages viewed. There were 41,389 hits to the home page.

A major advantage of a Web-based Transfer Guide is that it can be maintained to be consistently current when new information is added or edited as articulation agreements are created or modified. This currency is maintained with the assistance of contacts in each institution who enter new agreements online where they are reviewed by the CUCC Director to ensure accuracy in agreement terminology and then “go live” in the Guide.

Clear communication and a positive relationship with the corps of institutional contacts -- generally associated with the registrarial areas of their institutions -- are maintained to ensure the cooperation that is essential for maintaining currency and accuracy of the Guide. To that end, the CUCC inaugurated in July 2002 the OCUTG Newsletter that is distributed bi-monthly by email to all Registrars and institutional contacts. The Newsletter includes comments, questions, advice, and updates in order to enhance communication among those directly involved in the Transfer Guide’s currency.

Training sessions were held for the institutional contacts before the new Guide was launched in April 2001 and further training is scheduled for February 2003 to introduce a new category of agreement, the “Direct Entry Program” that will add to the Transfer Guide the admission policies of a number of Ontario universities that give advanced standing or block transfer credit to Ontario college graduates, not through formal articulation agreements, but rather as an admission policy that is usually related to a particular faculty of the university.

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A second important advantage to the users of the Web-based guide is its provision of ease in communication between the Transfer Guide users and the CUCC. An online Feedback Form is available to all users of the Guide, and feedback forms are monitored daily. Questions that Transfer Guide users can submit with the form are answered promptly.

Ads, articles and web links were used as promotional strategies in 2001-2002 to increase awareness of the Transfer Guide. These include an ad placed annually in the June issue of Professionally Speaking/Pour parlez profession, the professional journal for Ontario teachers, and customized articles about the Transfer Guide submitted to university and college alumni magazines over the year. There are prominent links to the OCUTG on the new OCAS web site, and articles are included in the bi-monthly newsletter, OCAS Notes, which is distributed to college administrators and guidance counsellors across Ontario. In December 2002, the CUCC submitted an article about the Transfer Guide to the Government of Ontario’s publication Ontario Prospects, which is targeted to Ontario secondary school students.

Research Two research projects were completed in 2001-2002 and a third is underway.

1. A joint research project with The Council of Ontario Universities on student demand for transfer agreements was completed in January 2002. The college and university registrars were surveyed to determine the movement by students from a college diploma program to a university degree program through formal college-to-university articulation agreements of the type envisioned in the Ontario College-University Degree Completion Accord. ( The Report is attached as Appendix B.)

2. In light of a frequent contention by personnel in the colleges that agreements with out-of-province degree-granting institutions may be more valuable to students and are more readily achieved than agreements with Ontario’s universities, an inventory and summary of college-to-university out-of- province agreements was completed and is attached as Appendix C. It is available on the CUCC Web site at http://www.cou.on.ca/cucc/publications/

3. The level of use by students of the out-of-province agreements-- as one measure of their effectiveness -- has not been clearly established, but CUCC has undertaken a survey to determine the level of student uptake of formal out-of-province transfer opportunities afforded by these agreements. A preliminary report is expected in the spring.

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OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES AHEAD IN COLLEGE-UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION

CUCC will continue to encourage, facilitate and support collaboration that will increase educational opportunities for Ontario students through the principles and practices that have been established during the Council’s six-year history. These include: • the development and ongoing enhancement of the Ontario College-University Transfer Guide, an important source of information for students; • quick response to questions submitted online by OCUTG users; • The Ontario College-University Degree Completion Accord (The Port Hope Accord) as a model for college-to-university agreements; • modeling enthusiastic leadership in innovative approaches to collaboration; • communication to the stakeholders within our institutions – and beyond -- about successful models of collaboration through forums and newsletters; • research to identify the best collaborative practices, to measure the effectiveness of the collaborative strategies and to identify needs for new approaches or avenues of collaboration.

The new environment in postsecondary education in Ontario presents new opportunities and challenges for collaboration among institutions in the college and university sectors. At the March 2002 CUCC Forum, the future direction and role of the CUCC, as well as areas of future research were explored. Specific challenges were identified in each of the Council’s mandated areas.

In the realm of Communication, the Council proposes two events for the upcoming year: • a second provincial forum in the spring of 2003 to present additional successful models of collaboration and an opportunity for focussed discussion amongst participants and • associated with the spring 2003 forum, a dinner meeting of the executive heads of post-secondary education in the Province to discuss applied degrees and the new university.

New communication strategies for promoting awareness of The Ontario College- University Transfer Guide will be developed and implemented. The scope of agreements included in the Guide has been extended to include the new category of Direct Entry Program. These university programs offer direct entry to college graduates with an assured block transfer of credit towards the university degree. They are not categorized as formal agreements because they are not formally signed by both the sending and receiving institution; hence they were excluded from the Guide under the terms of its revision in 2001. They will be entered into the Guide in the spring of 2003. The institutional contacts for the OCUTG will meet in February 2003 for information and training related the new category of “Direct Entry Program”.

The Council will facilitate new agreements by identifying areas of high affinity and potential new avenues of collaboration. It is time to review the Ontario College-

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University Degree Completion Accord in light of the wider range of collaborative agreements and the new environment of the colleges

Within the postsecondary community, there are questions regarding the abilities and success of students who transfer from college to university. Research will be conducted to assess the success of students who enter university programs through a college- university transfer agreement.

The September 2002 Ministerial Statement issued by CMEC (Council of Ministers of Education, ) may influence the mandate of the CUCC. The CUCC could play a role in Ontario’s participation in the development of a pan-Canadian protocol for credit transfer.

The experience of other provinces, in relation to transferability has been a benefit to CUCC in the past. The Province of British Columbia, through the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT), has been particularly helpful; and the offer of the Executive Director of the BCCAT to assist the CUCC in the area of research strategies should be used to advantage in planning new research. As well, with six years of experience, Ontario, through the CUCC, can now offer assistance to other provinces where, as an outcome of directions established by CMEC, they are embarking on enhancing their own transfer opportunities. Collaboration with similar provincial organizations across the country continues to befit the CUCC mandate, and students both within and beyond Ontario will benefit from this collaboration.

The College-University Consortium Council wishes to thank the Minister and the Ministry for their active support of the Council’s mandate and activities since 1996.

Submitted on behalf of the College-University Consortium Council by:

______Bonnie Patterson, Co-Chair Douglas Auld, Co-Chair

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