In addition to the removal of its Adult Basic Education offerings, College of the North Atlantic (CNA) has eliminated a number of other programs in an effort to balance its budget and make the organization more efficient and responsive to the workforce needs of the province.
CNA President Ann Marie Vaughan says the college was strategic with these reductions, targeting programs that were significantly low enrolled.
“We focused most of our reductions on programs that had a three-year low enrollment pattern of less than 10 students per year and that had limited applications on file for this year,” she says. “These are indicators to us that we’ve exhausted the market for those programs. At the same time, we have significant wait lists in other program areas. We need to shift as an institution to ensure our program offerings match student and labour force demands.”
These decisions will mean a reduction in the college’s total capacity of 702 seats (combined first, second and third years of the eliminated programs). Currently, there are 211 students enrolled in the programs being eliminated, and it is expected 162 of those will graduate at the end of this academic year, leaving 49 to be trained out.
“For those 49 students, their programs will continue to run. They will have an opportunity to graduate from the program in which they enrolled, however the college will not be accepting any new students into those offerings for September,” she says.
President Vaughan also noted that as part of the college’s regular academic planning process, programs that no longer meet a student or labour market need will need to be eliminated and replaced with new programs that fill that need. She says it has always been a part of how the college operates and will have to be even more so in the future.
“We will be looking at opportunities to introduce new programs at some of our campuses, and as stated previously, we will place particular focus on programming that meets identified regional and provincial labour force needs,” she says.
“We have already identified some of those programs and are working out where they will be located. We are hoping we can announce details about these new offerings as they become available.”
In terms of programming reductions by campus, Baie Verte will officially remove Machinist (put into suspension last year due to a lack of students) from its list of offerings. In Bay St. George, Visual Arts and Hospitality Tourism Management have been removed. In Bonavista, both Office Administration and Natural Resources Technician have been eliminated. Burin campus will see the removal of Comprehensive Arts and Science – Transition (CAS), Electrical Engineering Technology (Industrial Controls), First Year Engineering Technology (FYET), and Business Administration. In Carbonear, the campus will lose Bricklayer. Clarenville will eliminate FYET. Three programs will be removed from the offerings at Corner Brook campus, including Environmental Technology, Adventure Tourism – Outdoor Recreation, and Electronics Engineering Technology. Grand Falls-Windsor will lose CAS-Trades and the Marketing stream of the Business Management program. At the Happy Valley-Goose Bay location Automotive Service Technician, FYET, and Office Administration will be eliminated. In Labrador West, the college will remove FYET. Port aux Basques campus will lose CAS. Both the Machinist and CAS programs will be removed from Placentia. Prince Philip Drive campus in St. John’s loses Nutrition and Food Service Management and one of two sections of Motor Vehicle Body Repairer (Metal and Paint). At the Ridge Road campus in St. John’s the Telecommunications program is being eliminated. Oil Heat Systems Technician will be removed from Seal Cove campus. And FYET will be removed from St. Anthony’s list of offerings.
President Vaughan indicated the college must now focus on addressing approximately $4 million in reductions on the management and administration side of the operation in order to balance the institution’s budget. Details on those reductions will be announced once they have been finalized.
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For more information contact:
Roger Hulan
Communications Specialist
College of the North Atlantic
Phone: (709) 643-7938
Email: roger.hulan@cna.nl.ca