Our clocks and watches aren’t the only things springing forward this semester at Humber. We’re moving ahead with significant academic, student and employee initiatives, all intended to enhance our polytechnic model and make Humber a better place at which to study and work.

As you may have heard, the province of Ontario recently made a policy announcement that will allow Ontario colleges to offer independent nursing degrees. Humber has been advocating for such a policy for many years. Last month, I had the pleasure of meeting with Premier Ford, Minister Ross Romano, and other local politicians to talk about what this means to colleges across Ontario. Humber has enjoyed a successful partnership with the University of New Brunswick for almost 20 years, offering a joint degree in nursing, using Humber’s facilities and taught by our faculty with UNB’s curriculum. I would like to thank UNB for many years of successful partnership and we look forward to exploring new ways to collaborate.

Humber intends to offer an independent nursing degree program beginning in 2021. Thank you to the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellness and all nursing professors for their expertise and dedication to the success of the program.

Beyond the new nursing program, Humber also recently announced the launch of the Humber International Graduate School (IGS). The Humber IGS will welcome international students to the new downtown Toronto location in January 2021. The IGS will offer programs with a specialized business focus in the heart of the city’s business district at 59 Hayden St. While the same programs can be taken at the North and Lakeshore campuses, the new location offers a unique student experience. Programs will be taught by expert faculty and include work-integrated learning opportunities.

Humber IGS will offer ten Ontario Graduate Certificate programs. About 350 students will begin their studies there next year and we expect enrolment to grow to 2,000 soon.

Another important student development initiative – The Humber Learning Outcomes (HLO) Framework is being introduced this week that will help set Humber students and graduates apart from their college counterparts. The HLOs are a set of key mindsets and skills that will be embedded into curriculum and part of every Humber graduate’s employability profile. I will write more about the HLOs in future blogs.

In addition to these exciting academic initiatives, we are also continuing to focus on student and employee health and wellness.

I have often mentioned that it is our goal to become the healthiest campus in Canada and to do that, we need to hear from our students and employees.

Student Success and Engagement has launched the Healthy Campus Student Engagement initiative with discussions to learn about student experiences to help us identify what is working and where we can work to improve. To gather this feedback we held Healthy and Inclusive Campus Student Engagement Discussions in early March to gather as much feedback as possible. I look forward to hearing about the insights and student perspectives on continuing to foster a healthy campus.

Employee Well-Being and Engagement is also important to Humber. Through this initiative, employees will have an opportunity to define the elements of a framework that will describe Humber’s commitment to employee well-being and engagement and will drive actions, goals, strategies and programs to achieve these commitments.

I encourage employees to participate in the upcoming Information Sessions that will help us determine what should be included in our well-being and engagement framework. We can’t do it without your input. More information and registration can be found here. 

Thank you to everyone who is doing their part to improve the Humber community as we move into new and exciting times on campus and beyond. And make sure you adjusted your clocks and watches accordingly, we want everyone to be on time for class.