Mactech closing
Had one of worst loan repayment rates in 2014
A private online career college in North Sydney that has problems with students repaying student loans will close following the graduation of the current co-hort.
Mactech Distance Education spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn said Friday the company would not offer comment on its decision to close. She did confirm the students now taking courses would be able to finish their respective programs.
The school stopped taking new students in September.
The province was notified of Mactech’s decision to close its doors in August, said Minister of Advanced Education Kelly Regan.
The department indicated there were 53 current Mactech students who have provincial student loans totalling approximately $1.3 million.
When former students who still have loans to be paid off are factored in, the total owed to the province jumps to $4.8 million.
It was reported in June that Mactech had one of the worst student loan repayment rates in the country.
According to federal statistics from Canada Student Loan, students there had a student loan repayment rate of 45.7 per cent in 2014, meaning 54.3 per cent of students from the institution were defaulting on their loans.
The Department of Labour and Advanced Education had previously said when a post-secondary institution’s repayment rate falls below 60 per cent, the department works with the institution to improve the rate, which often requires the school to develop a performance improvement plan.
Both the Liberals and the previous NDP government had been keeping a close eye on Mactech, said Regan.
“We made it clear to them that we needed their (student loan) repayment rate to come up,” she said.
“We had sent them a list of questions that we were looking for the answers for and if we hadn’t seen improvement we likely would have had (Mactech) dedesignated” from the student loan program.
In operation for 27 years, Mactech has been an accredited online private career college. It employs 37 people at its office in North Sydney and has an annual enrolment of 300-500 students, most of whom are based in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
In June, Flynn described the repayment rate figure as being “biased against the people” that make up 90 per cent of Mactech’s student body.
She said many of them live below the poverty line including women, indigenous people, minorities, single parents, mature students and people living with disabilities.
Regan said there are measures in place to protect students from school closures, and amendments to legislation governing private career colleges were made in the spring.
“The (legislative amendments) should be ready (for implementation) in April as we had planned. Those will create performance standards like employment and (loan) repayment rates because we want to improve accountability and program quality at our career colleges.”
Mactech’s online programs included courses in legal and medical administration, human resources, web development, and multimedia and animation.