By Hasmik Sargsyan, Credential Evaluator, WES

As with many countries around the world, the postsecondary structure and degree offerings of Canadian higher education are in a state of evolution, especially with growing demand for access to degree programs. As part of this process, and in response to today’s changing economy and new educational requirements, provincial governments began approving charters in recent years allowing colleges to offer applied four-year degree programs, in addition to their more traditional vocational and professional certificate programs and two- to three-year diploma programs.

While Canadian universities have offered applied degrees for many decades, Canadian colleges only began offering these degrees in the late 1990s. Alberta and British Columbia were the first to offer such degrees. Other provinces have been doing so for a shorter period of time, partly in response to a demand for university places that existing public universities cannot meet.

However, there remains a large disconnect between how employers view the new degrees and how universities view them. For the most part, employers welcome these new programs as they produce job-ready graduates with advanced skills. Universities, however, appear to have been less welcoming of the non-university baccalaureate degree. There appears to be concern among some university stakeholders that the introduction and growth of new degree programs is diluting the value of the credential as a whole. This is borne out in the way many graduate admissions departments currently evaluate the new applied degree, especially with regards to transfer credit and graduate admissions.

Because the Canadian higher education system is binary in nature – distinct boundaries between university and vocationally oriented institutions with little movement between the two sectors – the introduction of degrees from traditionally non-degree granting institutions has muddied the waters with regards to student transfers and graduate admissions. While public universities and other not-for-profit institutions of higher education that are members of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) recognize one another’s credentials as of equal merit, those from non-AUCC colleges are viewed by university graduate departments across Canada with a certain degree of skepticism. For students, the situation has created confusion and uncertainty.

As more applied degrees are beginning to come onto the “market” there has been an increasing level of discussion in Canada over what exactly constitutes a degree, who should define it as such, and who should be permitted to offer it. It appears that provincial governments and their universities are not in agreement. On the one hand, provincial governments are approving degree-granting charters for specific programs at non-university institutions, while on the other hand, degree-granting standards as outlined by Canada’s strongly autonomous universities, and voiced through the membership criteria of the AUCC, indicate that these new degrees are not equal to those delivered at universities.

Purpose and Structure

Applied degree programs, offered through colleges, were first introduced in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and were created to meet the needs of employers seeking employees with specific skill sets. The curriculums, therefore, are far more applied than academic, and also include up to one year of on-the-job training. This mix of in-class theory and practical work placements have proved an attractive option for students graduating from high school with an interest in acquiring advanced learning and skills development. This has led to an increase in the number of applied degrees on offer, and in the number of students undertaking them.

Similar to a majority of Canada’s undergraduate degree programs, applied degrees are typically four years in length. In some cases, the core advanced vocational skills are offered in the first two years, allowing a student to graduate with a diploma after two or three years instead of continuing on for four years to complete the degree.

The focus of applied degree programs is on advanced study in career or technical fields, and the programs generally include six semesters of instruction and two semesters of work experience. The academic and work experience components are geared toward the attainment of clearly identified, employment-focused competencies.

Some of the main characteristics of applied degrees are as follows:

• Generally four-year programs, structured to combine six to eight semesters of formal on-campus instruction, as well as formally credited work experience. In Alberta, the work experience component consists of a work term of two semesters that is formally credited. In Ontario, this consists of 14 consecutive weeks of separate, paid, full-time work term prior to graduation and related to the professional field of study;
• Respond to demonstrated demand from students and employers;
• Provide a mix of theory and analytical skills with career-oriented, practical education and training;
• Focus on the attainment of clearly identified competencies that are employment focused;
• Program relevance and recognition by industry is ensured by including representatives from industry and relevant associations on program advisory committees;
• Normally include a diploma exit option, or may be offered as an extension of an existing diploma.

Currently there are approximately 40 colleges, universities and university colleges in Canada offering applied degree programs across a broad spectrum of fields, including:

• Accounting
• Agricultural Technology
• Aviation
• Business
• Child Studies
• Communications
• Computer Information Systems Technology
• Corrections
• Ecotourism
• Electronic Commerce
• Emergency Services Administration
• Financial Services
• Forest Resources Management
• Geographic Information Services
• Horticulture
• Human Services Administration
• Industrial Ecology
• Interior Design
• International Business
• Justice Studies
• Motion Picture Arts
• Petroleum Engineering Technology
• Policy Studies
• Sport and Recreation

In Ontario, 18 of the province’s 24 colleges and institutes currently offer 69 applied degree programs across a broad range of fields, with Humber, Sheridan and Seneca delivering the lion’s share.

• Bachelor of Applied Arts in specializations such as Animation, Human Services Management, Integrated Land Planning Technologies, Paralegal Studies
• Bachelor of Applied Business in specializations such as Automotive Management, E-Business Supply Chain Management, Electronic Business, Financial Services, Hospitality Operations Management, Integrated Accounting and Information Technology Management, Manufacturing Management
• Bachelor of Applied Human Services (Indigenous Leadership and Community Development)
• Bachelor of Applied Technology in specializations such as Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Architecture, Biotechnology, Construction and Environment, Environmental Assessment and Management, Environmental Site Remediation, Flight Program, Industrial Design, Microelectronics, Photonics, Process Automation, Software Development, Telecommunications and Computer Technologies.

Licensing

At Ontario colleges, applied degrees are approved by an internal review process, and then must also satisfy the requirements of the Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB). This government-appointed academic panel was established approximately six years ago to assess proposals from non-degree granting institutions seeking to establish degree programs. PEQAB studies all aspects of the program before recommending acceptance to the Minister of Colleges and Universities. The B.C equivalent of PEQAB is the Degree Quality Assessment Board, which is appointed by the Ministry of Advanced Education.

All college-level degree programs in Canada are contingent upon receiving a provincial charter. Canada’s highly autonomous public universities, on the other hand, have provincial charters that grant them the right to create degree programs as they see fit.

Transfer and Recognition Issues

In British Columbia, 3,453 degrees were awarded by colleges in the 2005-06 academic year, and the B.C. Council on Admissions and Transfer reports that 40 percent of students entering B.C. universities transfer from a college, institute or university college under articulation agreements dating back to the mid 1960s. The vast majority of students transfer into undergraduate programs, as many university graduate departments remain reluctant to recognize the growing number of baccalaureate and applied undergraduate degrees granted by the province’s colleges.

In Ontario, the college sector has been highly differentiated from the university sector since its creation in the 1960s. The mandate of Ontario’s College’s of Applied Arts and Technology (CAAT) was to offer career training through applied one- to three-year certificate and diploma programs. With a 40-year history of tiered differentiation between the two sectors, it should come as no great surprise that many of the province’s universities are now failing to recognize degrees awarded by colleges for graduate admission.

The crux of the matter in Ontario, and other provinces, appears to rest on what exactly constitutes a recognized degree. Canada does not have a system of accreditation as exists in the United States, so one cannot point to recognition from a particular government-approved body when assessing the merits of a particular credential. However, work completed at any institution that is a member of the AUCC, an advocacy organization that represents 92 public and private not-for-profit universities, is accepted as equivalent to that of any other AUCC member.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the AUCC states on its website that “Canada has no formal system of institutional accreditation. Membership in AUCC held in conjunction with a provincial charter may be accepted in lieu of institutional accreditation.”

In order to be eligible for AUCC membership, institutions must meet the association’s requirements, which state, among other things, they must offer a majority of their programs at the university level, must have a bicameral governance structure, and must have a record of academic research. This essentially means that Canadian colleges are faced with a situation where provincial governments say that they are qualified to grant bachelor’s degrees, while the national lobbying group for universities, and de facto accreditor, says that degree-granting colleges do not meet its membership criteria.

With this contradiction in place, it is not surprising that universities are turning down graduate applicants with applied degrees from colleges and technical institutes. The main argument from graduate departments is that due to the overly applied nature of the curricula, students are not graduating with adequate academic skills to take on research-based degree programs.

Some colleges are beginning to work closely with individual universities and with regional university associations to explore ways of building links between college degree programs and advanced programs offered by universities, but many students are still finding that they are not being offered the route to graduate studies they believed they would when originally enrolling in applied degree programs.

As an example of how contentious this issue is becoming, a day-long conference was organized in late 2006 by the University of Manitoba’s Centre for Higher Education Research and Development and the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education to discuss degree recognition in Canada, in addition to the pros and cons of establishing a national degree-accreditation system. It brought together more than 100 representatives of universities, colleges, provincial quality-assessment councils, academics and others.

According to reports from the conference, universities came in for sharp criticism over their reluctance to recognize applied undergraduate degrees; however, university representatives maintained that they would continue a policy of evaluating on an individual basis degrees from non-AUCC institutions, rather than looking for a blanket policy. One of the more common solutions appears to be to ask applied degree holders to complete additional university-level courses before being considered for admission to a graduate program. Other institutions, in the case of Queen’s University, are taking a harder line by maintaining a policy stating that only studies completed at AUCC member institutions will be considered for the purposes of admission and transfer credit.