As students increasingly juggle work, family and financial responsibilities, their learning needs and expectations are changing. Conventional models of higher education no longer satisfy these needs and are leaving many students behind. In response to this growing reality, Humber is transforming the educational landscape by pioneering exciting, new approaches that will give students more choice and flexibility in their learning. We are leading the way to a future where higher education is accessible to all.
Strategic Priority 3
Current Lead(s): Vera Beletzan, Nichole Molinaro
Initiative Description: This initiative will establish new partnerships between Humber and other postsecondary educational institutions to develop increased pathway options for our students. It will involve enhancing administrative processes and technology to support these pathways.
2018/2019 Achievements: In May 2018, Humber and Seneca College launched the Humber-Seneca Polytechnic Partnership (HSPP), an innovative alliance between the two institutions that expands educational opportunities for students by offering transfer pathways between the two colleges. The two schools identified two new transfer pathways. Students in Seneca’s graphic design diploma can now enter Humber’s creative advertising honours degree. Similarly, Humber students enrolled in a computer programmer diploma can join Seneca’s software development honours degree.
Humber also successfully completed several 2-plus-2 pathway pilots, with the Criminal Justice degree launching this year and boasting record-breaking enrolment.
2019/2020 Achievements: Following the introduction of Seneca’s Workplace Safety and Prevention diploma, Humber recognized a natural fit with its Bachelor of Health Sciences, Workplace Health and Wellness. A new pathway was created allowing Seneca’s graduates to transfer into Year 2 of the program. Humber’s current diploma-to-degree pathway offerings include 43 Seneca programs providing greater educational choice for students. The two colleges are on track to develop additional pathways in the areas of fashion, sustainable energy, and supply chain management among others.
2020/2021 Achievements: Recognizing the increasing demand for mobility between post-secondary programs, Humber enhanced its suite of unique and career-focused pathways that recognize a student’s previous education and provide opportunities for further studies. More than 270 new pathways were in development this year, including 200 as part of the Humber-Seneca Polytechnic Partnership (HSPP).
2021/2022 Achievements: The 200 pathways stemming from the Humber-Seneca Polytechnic Partnership (HSPP) were finalized to enable students from both colleges to benefit from their broad range of program offerings. This partnership agreement continues to increase opportunities for degree completion in business, public safety, mental health, data science and analysis, and interdisciplinary studies, and to create various options to build on diplomas and choose degree options with specializations.
2022/2023 Achievements: Humber continued to develop and implement a marketing and promotions strategy for prioritized pathway opportunities and to enhance the college’s administrative processes, technology, and staff capacity to support pathway development and implementation. To orient Humber faculty and staff on the college’s Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) procedures and processes, Humber offered a module — “Giving Students the Credit they Deserve”. To promote and build awareness of pathways amongst students, Humber launched a new website, “Explore Humber Pathways” that allows students to search for diploma-to-degree, and graduate certificate-to-masters pathways and held its Annual Pathways Fair. The Fair also generated funds to help support 10-12 transfer student scholarships for Humber students. The college launched new pathways to Master’s degrees in a variety of discipline areas.
Current Lead(s): Vera Beletzan, Nichole Molinaro
Initiative Description: As a polytechnic institution, Humber offers a broad range of programs and credentials utilizing a variety of delivery modes to enhance choice, mobility and access to education. This initiative seeks to expand those offerings in a broad range of subject areas and to diversify delivery modes. It involves developing micro-credentials that combine the delivery of specific knowledge and expertise in small manageable “bites” that are meaningful to employers with the assessment and recognition of learners’ previously acquired skills and knowledge.
2018/2019 Achievements: Humber expanded its program offerings by successfully launching a Bachelor of Design and new graduate certificate programs in Professional Accounting Practice, Content Strategy, Advanced Chocolate and Confectionary Artistry, Systems Navigator, and Music Composition.
Working with both industry partners and Humber’s current programs, the college built a foundational suite of micro-credentials including those which ‘stack’ to create certificates recognized by employers while meeting the requirements for formal postsecondary credentials. In its first year, 200 students enrolled in micro-credentials in areas such as social media and architectural design software.
2019/2020 Achievements: The college scanned industry delivery trends and identified priority areas to inform its micro-credentialing strategy, plan, and framework.
2020/2021 Achievements: In response to the increasing demand for graduate education from international students, the Humber International Graduate School (IGS) opened its virtual doors in downtown Toronto amidst Canada’s financial services hub and one of North America’s most dynamic tech sectors. Offering a unique global classroom experience that provides career-focused education, the Humber IGS offered four Ontario Graduate Certificates and a commitment to connect students to Canadian employment opportunities.
The displacement of workers in the wake of COVID-19 resulted in the fast-tracking of micro-credentials to help unemployed and underemployed workers develop new skills and ensure career resiliency. With a micro-credential strategy already in development and subsequently finalized this year, Humber moved quickly to undertake several initiatives including those focused on digital fluency and advanced manufacturing.
The college launched two new graduate certificates in January 2021 to meet labour market demands: Cloud Computing and Health Sector Regulatory Compliance.
2021/2022 Achievements: The Humber International Graduate School (IGS) continued to grow its graduate-level program offerings for international students by offering seven full-time programs in 2021-2022: Financial Planning, Business Insights & Analytics, Insurance Management, Property & Casualty, Research Analyst, Human Resource Analyst, and Enterprise Software Development, Information Technology Solutions.
In September 2021, the Bachelor of Engineering degrees launched to help fill the skills gap created by the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices using modern smart technology. The degrees include Bachelor of Engineering, Information Systems Engineering; Bachelor of Engineering, The Built Environment; and Bachelor of Engineering, Mechatronics. The Mechatronics degree is a collaboration with Sault College and will offer students in northern Ontario the opportunity to pursue this in-demand career while living close to home. The programs leverage Humber’s facilities, resources and technologies as living labs to inspire and enhance their learning experiences, including the Arboretum, the Barrett Centre for Technology Innovation, Humber’s database centre, and the new parking structure.
In Fall 2021, Humber’s Bachelor of Science, Nursing launched as the college’s first independent nursing degree program. With more than fifty years of experience preparing students for successful careers in the health sector, this four-year program focuses on nurses’ roles in community and public health, primary health care, long term care and acute care settings. Key features of this degree include small class sizes, a leading-edge simulation centre, bioscience and anatomy labs, and an array of clinical placement opportunities from across the Greater Toronto Area.
Humber also introduced its Ontario Graduate Certificate in Retirement Home Management and an honours Bachelor of Social Sciences, Addictions and Mental Health.
The college developed a Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) strategy to support the ongoing process of developing, maintaining, and recognizing professional skills. Aligned with Humber’s program and discipline areas of strength and leveraging the Centres of Innovation (COIs) Network, the new professionally developed, high-quality certificates and courses focus on the needs of non-traditional learners and the workforce of the future.
With the completion of a micro-credential strategy in 2020/2021, the college developed and implemented a quality assurance process for micro-credentials and added several new offerings: Underwriting & Adjudicating Mortgage Files, Mortgage Documentation & Compliance Management, Exploring Mechatronics, Accessibility for Digital Content Creators, Accessibility for Digital Designers, Basic Robotics Training, Essential Digital Skills for the Workforce I and II, Critical Thinking, and Communicating with Influence.
2022/2023 Achievements: The Humber International Graduate School (IGS) grew both its enrolment and graduate level program offerings. Student enrolment rose from 109 in the winter of 2021 to over 1,600 in the winter of 2023 and IGS programs expanded to include two certificates of achievement from Humber’s Continuous Professional Learning: Web Design and Development and Graphic Design for Print and Web. Two Graduate Certificates in Advertising Media Management and Entrepreneurial Enterprise - Business Management were also added to its program suite.
Humber launched several new credentials this year in response to labour market and learner needs.
- A diploma in Hearing Instrument Specialist in September 2022;
- A bachelor’s degree in Creative and Professional Writing in September 2022; and
- Graduate certificates in Retirement Home Management in the fall of 2022 and Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning Retirement Revised in the Winter 2023 term.
Gaining new skills or certifications contributes to financial success and career advancement. Humber's Continuous Professional Learning (CPL) provides industry-recognized education from qualified professionals to learners looking to meet their career goals. In 2022/23, CPL launched several new offerings including:
- Micro-credentials in commercial insurance and mental health leadership and more than 40 OSAP funding-eligible micro-credentials in areas such as leadership, financial planning, and mortgage documentation and compliance.
- Certificates of Accomplishment in Operating Room Nursing-RN, Medical-Surgical Nursing and RN Refresher
- Certificates of Accomplishment in Real Estate Leadership and Entrepreneurship, Transformative Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Leadership and 2SLGBTQ+ Studies
- Certificates of Completion in Insurance Broker Commercial Account Management and Administration of Capital Accumulation Plans
- A Condominium Management licensing program
Strategic Priority 4
Initiative Description: Through technology, education and cross-College collaboration, Humber will enhance its ability to create adaptive learning experiences and customized learning paths for its students. Over the course of the strategic plan, Humber will increase staff capacity to provide these educational opportunities through training and the refinement of its Adaptive Learning Platform, and will commence the duplication of its adaptive learning pilot programs across the College.
Update: This initiative was to commence in 2020/2021.Given the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on academic operations, this initiative is currently on hold.
Lead: Vera Beletzan
Initiative Description: Leveraging existing institutional experience and expertise, Humber will create curriculum that gives learners various ways of acquiring and demonstrating knowledge that accommodates individual learning differences.
2019/2020 Achievements: This initiative was scheduled to commence this year. Committed to adapting curriculum and its delivery to meet diverse student needs, Humber expanded its expertise in Universal Design for Learning through a series of courses offered online and in person to its faculty and staff. Equipped with the skills to create curriculum that accommodates individual learning differences, faculty across multiple disciplines are participating in a pilot project to re-develop courses applying Universal Design for Learning principles and approaches.
2020/2021 Achievements: Humber continued to enhance the accessibility of its curriculum by expanding the expertise of its faculty and staff in Universal Design for Learning. Multiple teams from across the college completed the Scholarship for Teaching and Learning (SOTL) pilot project focused on a comprehensive course redesign using a UDL lens. The inclusive design certificate was transitioned to an online format and faculty training programs were updated using an EDI, UDL and accessibility lens. The college also established a UDL Community of Practice to support this work across the institution.
2021/2022 Achievements: Supporting Humber’s Institutional EDI framework and strategy, the college continued to enhance the capacity of its faculty and staff to implement Universal Design for Learning by continuing pilot initiatives and integrating UDL principles into the Course Outline Software Supporting Instructional Design (COSSID) process.
2022/2023 Achievements: The College developed a UDL strategy and two UDL micro-credentials. A three-day UDL institute was held in winter 2023, with more than 30 faculty members attending and examining how to design and deliver their courses more inclusively. To support implementation, a Community of Practice was re-stablished.
Strategic Priority 5
Current Lead(s): Jason Seright & Elijah Williams
Initiative Description: This project promotes the development of educational resources that support the incorporation of Indigenous epistemologies into professional practice, including:
- Indigenous Knowledges Gathering: One Dish, One Spoon: Conversations on Global Sustainability provides a safe space to consider “two-eyed” perspectives and approaches to sustainability that have withstood global change and are based on evolving relationships with the dish we all share, the Earth.
- Truth and Reconciliation Training provides an immersive learning experience that allows Humber employees to make connections between historical experiences and current realities stemming from the legacy of those experiences. Participation in the training provides a better understanding of emerging histories, stories, and experiences, including one’s own role and responsibility on the road to reconciliation.
- Land-and-Culture Based Co-Curricular Activities engages Humber students and faculty in memorable, meaningful and transformative land-and-culture based learning experiences that bring together Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing with Western sciences. These co-curricular experiences build on learning that occurs in the classroom, embodying a “two-eyed” way of seeing, educating, and learning.
- Faculty Level Microcredentials recognise a faculty’s knowledge, skills, learning and experience. These “Indigenous Education Bundles” are stackable, allowing faculty to achieve additional credentials, or link to future education pathways, employment or career progression, inside and outside the field of Indigenous Education.
- Indigenous Cultural Markers, re-establish Indigenous place names, languages, and histories to highlight the continuity, presence and contributions of Indigenous peoples, both historically and in the contemporary context of today.
- Applied Indigenous Research enhances research excellence by introducing an interdisciplinary, Indigenous research and research training model that supports the strengths, needs, and aspirations of Indigenous learners, families and communities.
2018/2019 Achievements: To support improved policy, research, practice and leadership in Indigenous knowledge and education, Humber engaged in a number of activities including its annual Indigenous Knowledge Gathering, a pilot of Indigenous Cultural Safety Training, and the unveiling of Indigenous Cultural Markers to create awareness of the long history of Indigenous nations in the area. In celebration of the International Year of Indigenous Languages by the United Nations, Humber launched a pilot project highlighting the Ojibwe language: The Anishinaabeg Language Circles is an innovative approach to culture-based curriculum featuring elders, language specialists and Indigenous Knowledge Holders.
2019/2020 Achievements: Guided by the Indigenous Education Plan and Protocol for Indigenous Community Engagement, Humber strengthened partnerships to advance Indigenous Education and Engagement through community education events, professional development training, and curriculum development. Humber hosted its 7th annual Indigenous Knowledge Gathering, bringing together a diverse array of educators, practitioners, scholars, students and members of Indigenous communities to engage in meaningful conversations about the role and inherent responsibilities of education. The College also provided training to faculty and staff, revised curriculum to ensure it reflected Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing, and for the 11th time, offered Indigenous Camp Choice to introduce Indigenous students in the 7th and 8th grades to potential career paths and possibilities in postsecondary education.
2020/2021 Achievements: To immerse Indigenous knowledges, pedagogies, and cultural traditions as a core foundation of Humber’s professional practice, the college launched the 4 Seasons of Reconciliation. This self-paced, transformative and engaging professional development experience is designed to support and enhance awareness building and ultimately the strength and resilience of interlinked systems and processes across all levels of the college. In addition, the college also commenced development of micro-credentials that will expand the institution’s capacity to deliver curriculum that is culturally responsive and inclusive of Indigenous knowledges, voices, perspectives, and pedagogies. These efforts were supported at the student level through the introduction of pilot land-and-culture based experiential learning opportunities which effectively blended Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing together with non-Indigenous knowledges and sciences.
2021/2022 Achievements: Humber launched a new Indigenous Education Plan (IEP) based on Mino nawendiwin - Good Relationships. Recognizing the interconnectedness between all beings, it aims to integrate Indigenous epistemologies into professional practice and into the college's academic and operational activities. The plan also focuses on promoting the recruitment, retention and success of students and employees of Indigenous ancestry and supporting Indigenous students in maintaining their cultural identity as they pursue their educational goals.
The college continued its multi-year initiative of building Truth and Reconciliation training into academic programs through immersive learning and connecting historical experiences with current realities, including one’s own role and responsibility in reconciliation. Humber also commenced the development of community-specific ethical guidelines and protocols that support the strengths, needs, and aspirations of Indigenous learners, families, and communities.
2022/2023 Achievements: To provide ongoing learning for employees and students in Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing, the College developed Indigenous Learning Bundles and mapped out a plan to offer these opportunities as micro-credentials over the next year. To date, over 1,700 staff and students have completed the Four Seasons of Reconciliation cultural awareness training that promotes a renewed relationship between Indigenous Peoples and Canadians through transformative learning about truth and reconciliation.
In the fall of 2022, close to 500 educators, practitioners, scholars, students, and members of Indigenous communities attended the College’s Indigenous Knowledges Gathering. The event focused on overcoming adversity by leaning on culture and traditional knowledge, and the importance of student health and wellness.