Bridge Program (higher Education) - History of Bridge Programs in Ontario

History of Bridge Programs in Ontario

The College University Consortium Council (CUCC) was created in 1996 by the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities as an advisory body to help devise direct transfer routes between post-secondary institutions for all Ontario students. Its mission statement specifies that the main objective of the council is to “facilitate, promote and coordinate joint education and training ventures that will: aid the transfer of students from sector to sector; facilitate the creation of joint programs between colleges and universities; and further the development of a more seamless continuum of post-secondary education in Ontario. Membership in the council is voluntary for all post-secondary institutions, but is highly encouraged. While the CUCC aims to help institutions create bridge programs, it still maintains that colleges and universities have full autonomy on the specifics of the agreements created. One of the first projects of the CUCC, was the development of a mutual agreement between Ontario colleges and universities. In 1999, Ontario colleges and universities signed the Ontario College-University Degree Completion Accord (Port Hope Accord), which solidified their commitment to create province-wide agreements to help college graduates enter university programs. This Accord was a monumental achievement, as it explicitly stated that a three year college diploma program should provide a student with a minimum of eleven transfer credits (equivalent to at least 2 years of study) toward a four year bachelor’s degree, and a two year diploma program should allow the student to earn six to eight university transfer credits toward a degree (equivalent to 1 or 1.5 years). These minimum requirements were chosen based on the average amount of transfer credits awarded in the past by Registrars’ Offices across Ontario Universities. Within five years of attaining signatures, forty new college-university agreements were made, providing more opportunities for students to attain a comprehensive education.

By 2005 however, the Bob Rae Report declared that “nowhere near enough progress has been made” because student demand for transfer agreements still overpowered the actual number of diploma to degree programs available. The Report suggested that research must be done to link up related programming between institutions into collaborative degree programs, and create more academic pathways for students to achieve their career goals. It also suggested the creation of core, generic courses offered at all institutions that could be instantly transferable in any Ontario diploma or degree program. The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario was established in the same year as an advisory body to the provincial government, commissioning research on student post-secondary experience and recommendations to improve higher education in Ontario.

To better serve students interested in researching bridge program pathways, the CUCC made information much more accessible by developing the Ontario College-University Transfer Guide, an online resource that lists existing agreements between institutions that is searchable by program interest, as well as a detailed explanation of transfer credits granted in each agreement. This online guide will help to promote existing bridge programs in Ontario by providing students, guidance councillors, academic advisors, and parents a comprehensive source for all possible degree program pathways. As of October 2010, there were 514 agreements listed.

In the attempt to make further progress in Ontario’s credit transfer policies, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities established a new coordinating body in 2011 to replace the CUCC. The Ontario Council for Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT) aims to improve transfer pathways for students by focusing on creating multilateral agreements between institutions to maximize the number of transfer credits earned, and the number of students eligible to enrol in bridge programs. It also pledges to create consistency among programs of similar content in the province to help ease student mobility. ONCAT’s ultimate goal is to create a transfer model framework that grants all college diploma graduates the possibility to begin a degree program without repeating courses of similar content.