Transferability and Post-secondary Pathways: The Role of Canadian Colleges and Institutes. Association of Canadian Community Colleges, Ottawa, 2011. Pages: 77.

The Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), a national organisation representing Canadian colleges and institutes (i.e. institutes of technology, colleges of general and vocational education – cégeps, university colleges, community colleges and polytechnics) recently released its report outlining the institutional barriers inhibiting student mobility throughout the various levels of Canada’s higher education system.

The report presents the current difficulties pertaining to the transferability of credits and credentials between Canadian colleges and institutes, which are often used as the means of access to and movement within tertiary education. The report is based on findings from two Statistics Canada surveys – Youth in Transition Survey (YITS) and the National Graduate Survey – on the scholastic pathways within Canadian higher education. Moreover, it advocates for a pan-Canadian framework to promote the flow of students from colleges and institutes to universities.

This publication not only calls for greater focus on the need to eliminate transferability obstacles within the Canadian higher education system, but also highlights innovative learning pathways to achieve this. In regards to international transferability processes, it examines lifelong learning, student mobility, joint degree programmes, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and the diploma supplement under the Bologna Process as noteworthy comparative models. It also touches on processes in Australia and the US.

Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC)