The emergence of DE in Canada is generally considered to coincide with the rise of the mail service. It arose in Canada to provide access to education across the vast expanses of the country. In Canada, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, was the first to offer correspondence courses in 1889. The Canadian North West Mounted police was used for delivery of courses in areas without mail service. (Sauve, 1990). In 1907 DE off campus courses were introduced by the University of Alberta. Soon after several institutions opted for DE to serve populations living away from major centers of learning such as : Francis Xavier University (1935) and, University of British Columbia (1950). Such sporadic growth of distance education continued in Canada with the adoption of DE by Memorial University in 1967 and University of Waterloo in 1968 (CADE et.al., 1999).
A major landmark in the history of DE in Canada was the establishment of Athabasca University (AU) in 1972. AU was Canada’s first Open University and also the first autonomous DE institution to be set up in Canada.. The 1970s and 1980s saw a real spurt in the growth of DE institutions in Canada. In 1972 another open university(OU), namely Tele-universite in Quebec and Open Learning Institute(1978) later known as Open Learning Agency, introduced distance education programmes. The momentum caught on and there were many more players in the field by the 1990s. Today post secondary education in Canada is provided by degree granting institutions, called universities and by non-degree granting institutions which are referred to as colleges, CEGEPs or institutes of technology. Universities offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, whereas colleges typically offer career oriented technical training and general education leading to diplomas or certificates. Presently there are about 90 university level institutions in Canada and more than 200 colleges. About 70 of these grant degrees in all of their own programmes. A small number grant degrees in only one or two fields – usually theology and others do not grant degrees at all, but are associated with universities that do (CMEC, 2002). Canadian universities are generally publicly supported. For demographic reasons, more than half of the universities are located in the two most heavily populated provinces – Ontario and Quebec and also Nova Scotia for historical reasons.
Virtually all provinces have developed various communication media which universities are using to offer students an opportunity to study part time through DE. In 1999-98 there were 826361 learners were enrolled in Universities, 580376 full time and 245985 part time. 494955 were enrolled in colleges, 403516 full time and 91439 part time. (See Table-1 CICIC, 2002).
A major landmark in the history of DE in Canada was the establishment of Athabasca University (AU) in 1972. AU was Canada’s first Open University and also the first autonomous DE institution to be set up in Canada.. The 1970s and 1980s saw a real spurt in the growth of DE institutions in Canada. In 1972 another open university(OU), namely Tele-universite in Quebec and Open Learning Institute(1978) later known as Open Learning Agency, introduced distance education programmes. The momentum caught on and there were many more players in the field by the 1990s. Today post secondary education in Canada is provided by degree granting institutions, called universities and by non-degree granting institutions which are referred to as colleges, CEGEPs or institutes of technology. Universities offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees, whereas colleges typically offer career oriented technical training and general education leading to diplomas or certificates. Presently there are about 90 university level institutions in Canada and more than 200 colleges. About 70 of these grant degrees in all of their own programmes. A small number grant degrees in only one or two fields – usually theology and others do not grant degrees at all, but are associated with universities that do (CMEC, 2002). Canadian universities are generally publicly supported. For demographic reasons, more than half of the universities are located in the two most heavily populated provinces – Ontario and Quebec and also Nova Scotia for historical reasons.
Virtually all provinces have developed various communication media which universities are using to offer students an opportunity to study part time through DE. In 1999-98 there were 826361 learners were enrolled in Universities, 580376 full time and 245985 part time. 494955 were enrolled in colleges, 403516 full time and 91439 part time. (See Table-1 CICIC, 2002).
Table-1 Enrolment by levels in the Canadian Educational System
| Year | Schools, Elementary & Secondary | Colleges | Universities | ||||
| Part time | Full time | Total | Part time | Full time | Total | ||
| 1990-91 | 5141003 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| 1994-95 | 5362799 | 90810 | 379961 | 470771 | 283257 | 575713 | 858970 |
| 1998-99 | 5369716 | 91439 | 403516 | 494955 | 245985 | 580376 | 826361 |
No comments:
Post a Comment