The Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) has signed an agreement mandating each Ontario university to choose specializations in order to improve the educational experience of post-secondary students.
The Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA) was signed in early 2014 and will stand for three years, until 2017.
According to May Nazar, media relations co-ordinator at the ministry, the agreement aims to plan for the future, create a higher quality of post-secondary education, and increase student success.
“Each college and university has outlined its strengths in six key areas of post-secondary education,” Nazar said.
Ideally, this will make selecting a venue for university or college easier for prospective students and parents, according to Nazar.
“Overall reactions [to the program] have been very positive,” Nazar said.
Several schools have already dabbled in specialization, including Western University.
Janice Deakin, provost and vice-president (academic) at Western said the new mandate is helpful to them.
“The SMA process undertaken by the Ministry coincided with a process we already had underway to renew our strategic plan, so the exercise was a helpful one for Western,” Deakin said.
The University of Ottawa is also content with the agreement, according to Caroline Milliard, media relations manager at the university.
“The University of Ottawa is pleased that the agreement recognizes uOttawa as Ontario’s flagship comprehensive, research-intensive bilingual university,” Milliard said.
Katherine Graham, Carleton University’s senior adviser to the provost, also spoke highly of the agreement.
“This Strategic Mandate Agreement builds on the university’s strategic integrated plan for 2013-2018: Collaboration, Leadership, Resilience: Sustainable Communities-Global Prosperity,” Graham said. “We were simultaneously engaged in the development of both documents.”
According to Graham, Carleton’s SMA identifies 10 areas of specialization: environment and sustainability, life and health sciences, public policy, administration and governance, information technology, law and social justice, human behaviour and development, advanced technology, business, entrepreneurship and innovation, media, communications and culture, and global and international studies.
Five programs of study were also identified that Carleton will focus on and develop, according to Graham: health sciences, global and international studies, information management and digital media, business entrepreneurship and governance, and advanced technology and innovation.
