The college is doing a good job ensuring it provides high quality education, according to an independent audit conducted over the summer.
The audit, done by the arms-length Ontario College Quality Assurance Service, gave Algonquin a “mature effort” grade, the highest it can give. It was compiled in July based on a two-day visit by auditors in June.
“The college has committed very significant effort and resources over many years to achieve its current level of quality assurance,” the audit’s summary said.
It commended administration for its quality assurance policies and practices.
These include an evidence-based program quality review process, a policy to prioritize program support resources and a “robust cross-college culture” of improving quality.
During the audit, college staff submitted a self-evaluation of 17 areas that need improvement. The report noted that the large number of self-identified areas to improve doesn’t mean there are problems, rather that the college is making a genuine effort.
They include making more information available to students about further study at Algonquin, creating more work-integrated learning opportunities such as internships and apprenticeships and increasing responses to student course feedback surveys.
In the long term, staff said they were exploring the possibility of replacing its Student Information System, GeneSIS. The student-side of GeneSIS is known as ACSIS.
Maggie Cusson, the dean of Academic Development, who oversees quality assurance, said the college would be “years away” from replacing its SIS and there is no certainty it would.
“The world has evolved and there are potentially other options,” she said.
The audit also made its own recommendations. At the top of the list was reducing unnecessary course content, based on comments the audit panel received from students and grads that there was “overlapping, missing and irrelevant content” in some courses.
As well, students complained they weren’t getting feedback from their professors within the mandated 10 working days – a policy Cusson said wasn’t always being followed.
She said the college will set to work to implement all the recommendations. Although they aren’t particularly challenging, some of them may take a while.
“It’s not that it’s hard or easy… some of them are larger scope,” she said. Some may require outside expertise, such as a recommendation to create a performance evaluation system for part-time professors. Cusson said this might be an issue for the college system as a whole to take on and figure out together.
Overall, she said the good marks are good news for staff and students alike. “It’s awesome to get a result like that, it’s an affirmation that the college is doing really well,” she said. “I think the college really needs to be proud of it.”