Joint programs offer best of both worlds
Wondering if you should go to college or university? With a growing number of joint programs on everything from business to journalism and health sciences, you don’t necessarily have to choose.
Collaborations between universities and colleges enable students to graduate from joint programs with both a university and college credential, usually in the same amount of time it would take to complete a university program.
Such programs benefit students but also institutions. “We get to share some very expensive technology between the two institutions,” says Susan Searls Giroux, vice provost of faculty at McMaster University in Hamilton. “The other nice thing is that by working together, we don’t exhaust our community partners.”
McMaster and Mohawk College, also located in Hamilton, offer several collaborative programs, including nursing, medical radiations sciences and technology degrees. These partnerships allow students to move through various pathways – from apprenticeship to certificates and diplomas to undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Students can enter one of several technology programs – automotive and vehicle technology, automation technology or biotechnology – directly from high school. “It’s very much a hands-on learning experience combined with theory,” says Michael Justason, chair of McMaster’s civil engineering infrastructure technology program.
“If a student entered a mechanical engineering degree, for example, they’d have spent something like 50 hours in labs after four years. Someone in our automotive and vehicle technology degree will have spent 600 hours in labs after four years. We provide much more hands-on learning opportunities than a purely theoretical engineering degree.”
In a time when admission to engineering programs is increasingly competitive, technology programs offer a way for students to still pursue their interests in in-demand. “In southern Ontario, we have lots of car manufacturers and automotive parts manufacturers so it’s logical that we offer a program in automotive and vehicle technology,” Justason says.
Bachelor of technology graduates can still become engineers through Professional Engineers Ontario by successfully completing several challenge exams. Meanwhile, students with an advanced college diploma can apply to one of McMaster’s degree completion programs in civil, manufacturing, power and energy, or software and earn a technology degree through parttime studies, an option that allows them to also work.
That pathway appealed to Sharmin Kassam, who completed an advanced diploma in civil engineering at Humber College and will soon graduate from McMaster. “As much as I love the engineering aspect, my heart wasn’t set on a bachelor of engineering,” she says. “The bachelor of technology gave me the perfect mix of technical and management-driven courses in a versatile degree.”
Kassam is a designer/ estimator with a boutique scaffolding company and dabbles in junior project coordination. She credits her college experience as “one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made” because it gave her hands-on knowledge and valuable industry connections. She’s equally grateful for her university experience because it taught her the importance of versatility in the workplace and gave her career direction.