Algonquin College eyes east-side potential
Online learning with storefront support is one possibility, president says of future
Algonquin College is to conduct a learning review and look at ways it might better reach the city’s east side as the college assesses how to best position itself for the future, its president said Thursday as he welcomed employees back for a new school year.
The college is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2017. By 2042, it will be 75 years old, and “we need to start to think out that far about what is it that this place looks like,” Kent MacDonald said at the annual president’s breakfast to set the stage for the upcoming semesters.
“Are we going to only be on this campus, or do we need to think about serving the east end of Ottawa differently? Do we have to continue to go across Woodroffe Avenue? What about other jurisdictions, and what’s the impact of technology on that?” said MacDonald, who’s beginning his second year as the college’s president.
There’s a financial reality in which governments are unlikely to be able to invest heavily in higher education in coming years, he said after the speech, “so we can complain about that or we can control our own environment.”
MacDonald said he is hopeful a draft plan with potential initiatives will be completed by the middle of next year.
“What we want to examine is, really, with a blank slate, where is education going and how do we need to think differently about the realities that we’re faced with.”
The effect of technology is also important, he said. Currently, 20 per cent of courses and programs are offered in a “hybrid” (in-class and online) format, he said, but “is that enough? Do we need to go further down that path? Because quite frankly, we’ve got a model set up that if we continue to grow at the current rate of three per cent, we can’t afford new buildings.
“We need to rethink about what our facilities are for and how can learning occur.”
Another eventual option might be to better reach the city’s east side through improved promotion of online opportunities or a storefront location where students could register and receive support while learning online or at the main campus on Woodroffe, MacDonald said.
Orléans is well-served by La Cité collégiale, “so I’m sensitive to that. I also know that it’s a community bigger than most communities other Ontario colleges serve,” he said.
The college is also to assess potential expansion on land on the west side of Woodroffe Avenue, he said.
The review of the college’s purpose and future was among cornerstones for the college that MacDonald outlined in his speech, along with technology, leadership and its international presence.
The college is to begin offering programs such as business, construction and electrical engineering, at a 2,000-student English-language campus in the Jazan Economic City in Saudi Arabia. It also has ties to campuses in countries such as China, Montenegro and India, and another program is being set up in Kuwait for 2014.