BY CRAIG GILBERT
Cambrian College has suspended first-year intake for its geology technician program for the next academic year.
The program just isn?t performing, according to John Hood, dean of the School of Computer and Engineering Technology.
?It?s low enrolment, primarily,? said Hood. ?We have a responsibility to the taxpayer to ensure we?re running programs that meet the needs of the students and the taxpayer. Colleges can?t run at a loss.?
The college has been seeing only seven or eight first-year students taking the course for quite some time, he said.
The college will determine why that is and whether it would be doing a better job without the program.
?We?ve suspended the technician program, but those who want to take geology can enter through the mining technician program into geology engineering technology,? he said. ?Most of our graduates in the geology program have taken the technology course.
?So we?re really still offering what we were before, and that?s a geology engineering technology diploma.?
Hood explained all the technology programs in his department are ?flow-through,? which means students have choices at varying intervals to choose
whether to change stream, continue their education or find a job.
With the technician program suspended, students now won?t have to choose which stream they want to take until after fourth semester, not after a common first term as was the case.
Course and program reviews are standard procedure at the college, he said.
Cambrian grad (1983) Dale Clark, now retired, says the mining school in Hailebury was shut down about 10 years ago after a similar program suspension. That paved the way for Cambrian to expand its mining program, he said.
