College Council Highlights: April 2016

Humber College Council held its fourth meeting of the Winter semester on Thursday, April 21, at the North Campus. In the interest of keeping the Humber community informed about upcoming events, new initiatives, and important issues, College Council will continue to report the highlights of the monthly meetings.  For more information on any topic, or to give me feedback on the reports, please feel free to contact me directly at lisa.salem-wiseman@humber.ca.

Upcoming Events

HLA@IFOA Conference

The School of Liberal Arts and Science will be presenting its third annual HLA@IFOA Conference in partnership with the International Festival of Authors (IFOA). The conference, entitled “Truth, Lies, and Manufacturing Memory,” will be held October 28-29 at Harbourfront Centre, and will feature a keynote address by world-renowned public intellectual and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges. For more information, please see humber.ca/liberalarts-ifoa

The fourth annual Humber College Golf Classic will be held Tuesday, June 7, 2016, at Glen Eagle Golf Club in Bolton. All proceeds raised at the Humber College Golf Classic will go towards awards and scholarships for deserving students.

For more information, and to register, please see humber.ca/giving/golfclassic

Program Development Process

Laurie Rancourt, Humber’s Senior Vice President Academic, walked Council members through the process by which new programs are developed at Humber. Every program development decision is anchored in Humber’s three foundational documents: the 2013-2018 Strategic Plan, the 2016-2021 Academic Plan, and the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Framework and Action Plans.

The Core SEM Team, which has cross-institutional representation, is an important part of the program development process. Several SEM processes inform decisions about new programs:

• The environmental scan provides information that helps us make decisions about program development areas.
• Development of enrolment targets influences the development of new programs
• Resource and space planning also plays a role; what resources are required to support the proposed programs and what will the impact be on faculty, equipment, budget, etc.?

The program development process is constantly evolving. In addition to the work at the school and program level, the following steps are essential:

• The Academic Leadership Council conducts a preliminary review of proposed new ideas against SEM targets and the Academic Plan.
• The Core SEM team reviews the academic priority list of new ideas and undertakes preliminary impact analysis.
• The Senior Vice President Academic presents the final list of potential new programs to the Executive Team, and provides an overview to College Council for the next cycle of upcoming new program proposals.

Progressing from idea to concept to program takes time. Non-degree programs must be approved by the Board of Governors and submitted to MTCU at least eighteen months prior to the proposed start date. For degree programs, at least 27 months are required.

2016 Environmental Scan

Corrine Johnston, Director, Strategic Planning and Institutional Analysis, with assistance from Amy Kaufman, Manager, Strategic Planning, and Christina Persaud, Administrative Coordinator, Strategic Planning and Institutional Analysis, presented Humber’s new 2016 environmental scan. This is the ongoing review of current and anticipated internal and external factors that impact Humber specifically and postsecondary education generally. The information is presented in an interactive web-based format, accessible by all Humber staff and faculty.

The economic scan includes data and analysis of demographics, international student recruitment, immigration, the economy and the labour market. It also includes information about Humber’s enrollment, international students, Humber’s competitive environment, and student applications by college across the GTA.

For more information, and to view the data and analysis, please visit humber.ca/wearehumber/environmentalscan

In keeping with Council’s mandate to report back to the President on key items, members of Council met in small working groups to discuss the evening’s presentations and to make notes that will be brought to the President.

The next meeting of Humber College Council will be held on Thursday, May 12, at the Lakeshore Campus.