Bethany College, a small Christian post-secondary school in Hepburn, Sask., will be closing at the end of the 2014-15 academic year after 87 years.
Enrolment is the main source of funding for the school, coupled with donations, according to Bethany president Howard Wall.
“The driving and primary issue is our enrolment has decreased,” he said. “We’ve increased our recruitment budget and we continue to struggle with finding students to come.”
Hall said the closure will affect the community as well as students.
“The biggest impact would be on the Hepburn community,” he said. “We will be losing probably the equivalent of about 15 full-time employees here in the school.”
Hall said some of these staff members will be trying to find similar job opportunities.
“In religious education faculty often move to and from, back and forth into our college and from our college and to church ministries, so either as pastors or associate pastors, and that’s one of the places that they’re beginning to look towards,” he said.
Hall said for teachers, it’s a difficult job market.
“There aren’t many undergraduate theological institutions in Canada. There are a few, but again, they are not growing,” he said. “There are all sorts of colleges throughout western Canada . . . but [there are] challenges in the area of budget when these institutions make steps to hire staff,” he continued.
For the students, however, things are looking up.
“Our registrar and academic dean have been working with every student,” Hall said. “We have received awesome opportunities with other schools in Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C. They’re very quick to accept our credits.”
Hall said the Association of Biblical Higher Education, an international accreditation agency, makes the transfer of credits easy between theological institutions.
“We’re a small school and so that means you have very close relationships—so we love the students, they care about their instructors, and the people they see everyday,” he said.
