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Leadership Abstract - The Learning College and Institutional Survival


In the 36 years since the Ontario government mandated the creation of colleges of applied arts and technology, Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning has ridden a cyclone of challenges and exhilarations. Yet this Toronto college has done much more than just hang on for the ride. Read how Humber has braved economic and educational upheavals and surpassed even its own expectations in the August Leadership Abstracts.

Published monthly with Support from SCT (www.sct.com)

** To view the web version of this abstract, in printer friendly layout, go to https://www.league.org/publication/abstracts/leadership/labs0803.htm **

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The Learning College and Institutional Survival

Robert A. Gordon

ENVIRONMENT SCAN

In 1965, the Government of Ontario passed legislation to create the
colleges of Applied Arts and Technology as a natural response to meeting escalating human resource requirements for the post-World-War-II period. The mandate called for the provision of a steady flow of graduates to feed the midlevel infrastructure of the emerging post-industrial, computerized economy – essentially, to increase skill levels beyond those possessed by graduates of high schools. Humber opened its doors in Toronto in 1967, to a steady stream of students who followed prescribed programs leading to gainful employment, and today has about 125,000 graduates. The challenges for the early leaders of these colleges were straightforward: building campuses, developing curriculum, and hiring faculty and staff. Unlike today, they did not have to worry constantly about inadequate operating monies.

Thirty-six years later, as the college grapples with serious financial
concerns, three pressing new issues have emerged.

*Not only has the minimal qualification for productive entry into the
workforce evolved from a high school diploma to the associate degree, but for many occupations the baccalaureate is required. Moreover, given the unrelenting pace of change, it is clear that lifelong learning has now become obligatory in order to navigate successfully the escalating and shifting demands of a knowledge society. Staying abreast of rapid changes in specific fields and career-enhancing potential will require more postsecondary education for either retraining or upgrading credentials.

*The so called Generation Y, the current 18-to-24 age group, has been
raised as sophisticated consumers used to the scope of the internet and
graphically designed materials, and, as such, expects individualized,
custom-made, modularized education. Additionally, these learners come from a rainbow of ethnic, cultural, religious, and generational diversity. The ever broadening scope and ease of use of readily available technology and software now suggests that just-in-time education has arrived. Increasing pressure is now being put on traditional teaching institutions to recreate themselves as learning organizations. As part of that shift, individual faculty must adjust by reviewing curriculum and methods of delivery so as to meet learner needs on a case by case basis.

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Dr. Susan Salvador
Office for Student Services
08/26/2003