Volume 44, Number 1, September/October 1964 - BCTF Home

Regional colleges will provide in one institution
a wide range of post-secondary programs.
The Two-Year College
Has a Unique Role to Play
W. H. W. IIARDWICK
DEMANDS FOH INCREASED FACILITIES for pOSC-SC'COndiiry
school education arc before almost every community
in Hritish Columbia. Training for classes of jobs
which five years ago may have been non-existent are
now imperative if our British Columbia communities
and regions are lo grow and prosper, given the keen
competition from larger centers of opportunity such
as Ontario and California.
These demands for facilities reflect (1) the rapid
increase in numbers of students who will be requiring
and demanding post-high school education in the next
seven or eight years; (2) the increasing requirements
by business and industry for better and highly trained
people; (3) the need for comprehensive institutions
to produce the trained people; and (4) the interest
of many taxpayers in ascertaining the most economical
ways and means of financing these institutions.
I do not intend to enlarge upon the imminent
explosion in numbers of post-secondary students; on
the growing demand for better-trained population;
nor on contributions of various types of institutions in
general. Dr. Macdonald, President of UBC, has
clearly indicated the need for higher education. However,
a basic problem affecting the orderly development
of post-secondary education in British Columbia,
namely, the lack of understanding of the purpose,
role and comprehensive nature of proposed two-year
regional colleges, must be understood.
A significant new type of college, the two-year
regional college, has been authorized for British
Columbia. It is intended to fill a void now present in
the educational system by providing a wide range of
post-secondary school programs in one institution, the
better, to equip students for the ever-changing
employment situation. Once operative, these colleges
would offer (1) traditional curriculum in Arts and
Science for students wishing later to transfer to fouryear
institutions; (2) instruction in a wide range of
related courses which would provide valuable terminal
education for those entering the governmental
and business world; and (3) broad programs of
general education for those who wish simply to enrich
their lives. These programs would be designed to
meet the needs of each region, and would vary from
college to college. Most programs would be 'openend'
programs; in other words, programs which would
equip the young person for a wide range of jobs and
for eventual retraining when that becomes a necessity.
The 'closed-end' vocational training—i.e., training
for a specific job—is actually becoming less
important in the spectrum of education.
Two-year colleges have been proposed immediately
for Vancouver, the Okanagan and West Kootenay
regions. Within seven years additional colleges will
bo opened in Eastern Erase Valley, Kamloops, Prince
George and on Central Vancouver Island; perhaps
along with a 'two-year college program' at Victoria.
The role of this two-year college is significantly
different from anything known in British Columbia to
date, and because it is new, there have been considerable
misunderstandings about its function, administration
and financing.
The basic problem centers on the comprehensive
nature of the college. It is not simply a two-year
academic college, like old Victoria College. It is not a
vocational school like the ones at Burnaby and Nanaimo
and others being built &t various interior centers.
It is part of both. However, its aims are different. The
college offers a wide range of subject matter that can
be taken in various combinations to provide students
with skills that fit a variety of occupations—not a
particular academic discipline nor a particular vocational
trade.
In some areas of the United States, and to a limited
degree in the City of Vancouver, it has been demonstrated
that flexible programs will fit young people for
a multi-varied job picture. The rapidly-changing
North American society requires flexibility in educa-
THE B. C. TEACHER