Chemical engineering and construction engineering are out at Collège Boréal and plumbing technician and business are in.
The francophone college's board of governors voted Jan. 30 to make cuts to 12 of its programs.
Five of these programs are being suspended altogether, while the rest are either being cut from some of the communities where Boréal operates or are being changed to apprenticeships instead of traditional post-secondary programs.
The term "program suspension" is used because there's always the chance that the programs could be brought back in the future as the job market changes.
Six new programs are also being added by September 2019, four of them distance education programs.
Students already enrolled in the affected programs will have the opportunity to complete their program and earn their diploma.
“Every year, Collège Boréal, like every college, has a review process for the programs it offers,” said the college's president, Daniel Giroux.
Each program is reviewed for enrolment, student retention, program cost effectiveness, employment rates and program uniqueness.
Usually these decisions are made in the spring, but this year, Boréal decided to do it in the winter so as not to impact students who are applying to college, Giroux said.
Here are the impacted programs:
Program suspension
- Dental Assistant (Sudbury/Toronto)
- Pharmacy Technician (Sudbury/Toronto)
- Chemical Engineering Techniques (Sudbury)
- Chemical Engineering Technology (Sudbury)
- Construction Engineering Technician (Toronto)
Program cuts in specific communities
- Practical Nursing (Hearst, Kapuskasing, Nipissing and Windsor)
- Electrical Techniques (Timmins)
- Electrical Engineering Technician (Timmins)
Modified delivery method
- Motive Power Technician (Sudbury) – becoming an apprenticeship only
- Culinary Arts (Sudbury/Timmins) – becoming an apprenticeship only
- Culinary Management (Sudbury/Timmins) – becoming an apprenticeship only
- Mechanical Technician (Sudbury) – becoming an apprenticeship only
New programs being added:
- Plumbing Technician (Sudbury)
- Motive Power Technician – Truck and Coach (Timmins)
- Early Childhood Education Administration – graduate certificate (distance education)
- Multidisciplinary Gerontology - graduate certificate (distance education)
- Advanced Correctional Interventions for Complex Populations - graduate certificate (distance education)
- Business (distance education)
