INTRODUCTION

This chapter is a look at the nature of polytechnic post-secondary education in Ontario with a view of pathway progression for students from one credential to another. Here, we explore the rich history of polytechnic education, the barriers preventing students from transferring to higher credentials, and the dynamic capabilities theory that is helping Humber to break down these impediments to create an ease of access to baccalaureate education. In particular, we examine the case of Paralegal diploma graduates in Ontario.

Polytechnic education as we know it had its origins in the United Kingdom in the 19th century. The first polytechnic to open in London was called the Royal Polytechnic Institution which began offering classes in 1838 (University of Westminster, 2020). At that time, the Institution offered education in engineering and other modern sciences. Famous aeronautics engineer, Sir George Cayley, was its first Board Chair and oversaw the institution as it brought in an astounding profit of £1,000 per year due to its popularity. In A History of the Polytechnic, Ethel Wood (1965) wrote that the institution’s gallery was described like this:

There are amongst other things, a printing press, the workshop of an optician, with apparatus employed in grinding and polishing lenses, etc., a glass furnace; the workshop of an ivory turner; weaving power looms; a rotary steam engine, a complete laboratory, and many other things necessary to carry out the intentions of the establishment. It is intended to deliver lectures in rooms within the building, and there will also be arrangements for supplying subscribers with papers and periodicals in an appropriate apartment. (p. 20)

The early origins of polytechnics brought the educational community and industry together. They advanced industry’s progress, in part by the work of faculty and students in classroom and laboratory settings. Polytechnics were also developed to provide educational and social mobility opportunities for those who would not traditionally enter university education—early school leavers and/or those with no family history of post-secondary education (Pratt, 1997). Polytechnic education, from its earliest days in the UK, was seen as technical training for the masses. Wood (1965) wrote that in the 1880s:

The polytechnic is, practically speaking, a club for the wage-earning class, and its founder always insisted that to make it useful, homelike, and acceptable to those for whom it is intended, it was necessary to provide not only what the president, governing body, or secretary thought suitable, but so far as was possible, what the members themselves wished for. (p. 51)

By 1882, the Royal Polytechnic Institution had transformed into what was known as The Young Men’s Christian Institute and offered a range of studies in the trades and sciences, as well as painting and the arts. The “Polytechnic,” as it was commonly referred to, served more than 6,000 students in the early 1880s, thanks to its wealthy benefactor, Quinton Hogg (Wood, 1912). Today the “Polytechnic” has evolved into the renowned public research institution, London’s University of Westminster (University of Westminster, 2020).

Post-secondary polytechnic education in Canada, and around the world, has been modeled on the early polytechnics of the UK. Currently, Polytechnics Canada, an organization devoted to promoting and advocating for the polytechnic model, lists 13 Canadian institutional members that identify as polytechnics. Like the early polytechnics, these institutions are characterized by their emphasis on innovative applied learning, a broad credential mix, close ties to industry, and strong applied research programs. University of Toronto Professor Emeritus, Michael Skolnik, has been studying technical college education for more than 50 years. As he notes earlier in this volume regarding the early introduction of polytechnics in England, “The more I have studied the evolution of technical colleges over the past half century, the more I am struck by what a revolutionary development the English polytechnic was and how much impact it has had on ideas about the provision of applied education” (Skolnik, 2021, p. 17).

He has not oversold this notion. Polytechnic history continues to be made in modern day Ontario with the development of the province’s Institutes of Technology and Advanced Learning (ITAL), as described in the Foreword (Whitaker, 2021), Komesch and Watts-Rynard (2021) and elsewhere (DeCourcy & Marsh, 2018). In particular, polytechnics provide an applied, hands-on approach to learning using modern technologies and case studies of real industrial and business models. The programming responds to the needs of local industries and includes work-integrated learning and applied research opportunities for students (DeCourcy & Marsh, 2018). The curricula in polytechnics are closely aligned with industry needs. The professors are business and industry experts, the program advisors come directly from the field of study, and students train on industry standard equipment and technology (Komesch & Watts-Rynard, 2021).

Although the role and impact of polytechnic institutions and ITALs has continued to evolve in Ontario and beyond, there have remained challenges. For instance, the province of Ontario does not currently recognize a formal designation of a “polytechnic” institution, and this has broad implications. As Whitaker makes clear in this book’s Foreword, “The case for formalizing polytechnics is about modernizing the post-secondary education system to leverage the differentiation that is evolving organically” (Whitaker, 2021, p.5). A Polytechnic designation would help with recognition of the college baccalaureate programs as equal in value to university undergraduate education. It would also help bolster the number of students attending polytechnic degree-level programs and improve their prospects beyond graduation. As Skolnik (2021) observes, enrolment in college degree programs in Ontario is proportionally much, much lower than that in university programs. This contrasts further with the relatively higher proportion of enrolment in polytechnic degree programs in many European countries, compared to universities.

Further, the separate binary history of Ontario’s college and university systems has not properly served those students who wish to reap the benefits of both sectors. Transferability between diploma and degree programs has been extremely limited since Ontario colleges came into being in 1967. Ontario’s publicly funded provider of distance education to remote and underserved communities, Contact North (2015) describes this as “a complex system which has some barriers to learner mobility” (p. 3). These include:

• weak transfer credit systems within individual provinces and at the interprovincial level;
• weak systems for prior learning assessment across Canada;
• a lack of portability for certain credentials (especially trades and certain professions), reflecting trade barriers and provincial certification difference; and
• weak, but improving systems, for the fast and efficient recognition of foreign credentials (Contact North, 2015).

In short, there are still too few easy options to help students move into bachelor’s degree programs from diplomas. Clearly, while today’s social and educational revolutions may appear quite different than in Hogg’s day, they are no less significant. Despite these challenges, Humber College ITAL, located in Toronto, Ontario, has remained unequivocally committed to its stated Polytechnic identity, and all that that entails. Humber describes itself as “one of Canada’s leading post-secondary institutions, offering programs that emphasize a solid academic foundation and practical hands-on learning” (Humber College, n.d.-a). Humber offers more baccalaureate degrees (29 as of Fall 2020, with a Bachelor of Engineering program due to open in Fall 2021) than any of its peer institutions. With a burgeoning applied research culture and strategic plan that compels constituents to “Lead, Transform, and Differentiate,” Humber sets the bar high for administration, faculty, and staff. As a member of Polytechnics Canada, Humber has clearly positioned itself as a polytechnic institution in its approach to teaching and learning, and in its marketing (Humber College, n.d.-c). In its 2018 – 2023 Strategic Plan, Humber lists as its third Strategic Priority a call to “Lead the province in developing programs, credentials and pathways that enhance student choice, mobility and access to higher education.” It commits to “expand mobility by developing new pathways and partnerships with other institutions” (Humber College, 2018). This is courageous, given the many systemic hurdles described previously.

Nonetheless, Humber is committed to fulfilling its Strategic Plan mandate. Using the dynamic capabilities theory – a framework developed by Teece et al. (1997), Humber intends to overcome the barriers to accessibility and ensure seamless student mobility. The fundamental assumption of this framework is that an organization’s main capabilities should be used to create short-term improvements that can be developed into longer term advantages to address rapidly changing environments. The framework sees internal cooperation as foundational for the organization’s dynamic efficiency. In particular, the asset orchestration function, which is central to dynamic capabilities, requires strong cooperation both inside the organization and with its partners (Teece et al., 1997). Helfat et al. (2007) suggest that asset orchestration includes identifying an organization’s assets, investing in them, and then deploying change for a competitive advantage.

In this chapter, we will describe how the dynamic capabilities framework is helping move Humber into the competitive advantage of offering seamless pathways and transfer options for students into baccalaureate programs. In particular, we will show how Humber has begun to do this with provisions in its paralegal education programs to allow eligible graduates from the two-year diploma to move into year three of the Bachelor of Paralegal Studies program with the help of a Critical Literacy bridging course, as an example of how to improve student mobility and pathways between different credentials.

For pathways, we refer exclusively to diploma-to-degree completion, as opposed to a broader definition that may include stackable credentials or other progressions. Access is defined as the opportunity to engage in post-secondary education, culminating in a baccalaureate degree. This is based on admission, progression and graduation rules, and processes of credit evaluation. Mobility is defined as the ability for students to engage in formal learning at one post-secondary institution and have it acknowledged fully by another, such that the credit earned is portable. Much of the literature on diploma to degree completion refers to college-university partnerships which was the only possibility in Ontario until 20 years ago. Ontario colleges have been permitted to offer baccalaureate degrees since 2000, and, as such, diploma-to-degree completion can also occur within or between a college or colleges. Institutions such as Humber, which have evolved to become polytechnics, play important roles in these transfer opportunities.

ONTARIO AND POLYTECHNICS

Although the term polytechnic isn’t formally recognized in Ontario, the provincial government granted Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (ITAL) status to five colleges—including Humber—in 2003. No more than 15% of an ITAL’s total programming may be offered as baccalaureate degrees. As it currently stands, it is difficult for students to transfer among the different credentials, particularly from two-year diplomas into year three of a bachelor’s degree program. Although other polytechnics in North America and abroad offer post-baccalaureate degrees geared to working professionals, graduate degrees in Ontario are reserved exclusively for universities. It is unclear if one, or both, of these factors have contributed to the general lack of awareness of Ontario college degrees, within and outside of the system.

The ITALs are all members of Polytechnics Canada which define member institutions as follows:

A Canadian polytechnic is a publicly funded college or institute of technology that offers a wide range of advanced education credentials – four-year bachelor’s degrees, advanced diplomas, certificates, as well as in-class training for apprenticeship programs. Polytechnic programs are skills-intensive and technology-based. Hands-on, experiential learning opportunities are integral to the curriculum, providing students with practical training for jobs in demand. Canada’s polytechnics also solve real R&D and commercialization problems for Canadian firms because of their close partnership with industry. (Polytechnics Canada, n.d.)

As mentioned above, it has historically been difficult for Ontario students to transfer from college diploma programs into university baccalaureates. One rationale for the difficulty of diploma–to–university transfer is that “the curricula of college career programs do not mesh well with most university programs” (Skolnik, 2021, p.34). This may be attributable to the method of instruction: namely, lecture/theory in university versus practical/hands-on in colleges. But according to Gerhardt and Ackerman (2014), “the old model of identifying colleges with ‘practical’ knowledge, and universities solely with ‘theoretical’ knowledge, is giving way to a paradigm that identifies programs and disciplines, rather than institutions, as the determining factor when evaluating specific sets of learning and assessment models” (para. 15). Despite a small sample size (n=26), Gerhardt and Ackerman captured students’ observations that “the amount of emphasis that is being placed on either theory or praxis is more closely correlated to individual disciplines rather than being an institutionally specific mandate” (para. 15). To add to this thought, we can only expect an increase in career-oriented, hands-on learning in Ontario’s publicly funded post-secondary institutions. In 2019, the Ontario government implemented a shift toward more metrics-based funding for all public post-secondary providers, and experiential learning is a mandatory component for receiving that funding (The Canadian Press, 2019). To understand the challenges for student mobility between credential offerings, it’s important to review the various mechanisms by which students receive credit for their learning.

THE LANGUAGE OF PATHWAYS

There are different definitions for pathways in the polytechnic setting:

• Articulation is a formal collaborative agreement between educational institutions that enables a student to complete a program of study at one institution and, using accumulated credits, attain a different credential with a reduced credit load at another. Articulation can be defined as being a vertical process to higher levels of academic achievement or a horizontal process at the same credential level (O’Meara, Hall & Carmichael, 2007).
• Pathways require instructional design and administrative frameworks that allow students to move from one qualification to the next without the need to take similar courses. Often, pathways are characterized by an institutions’ acceptance of a successfully completed two-year diploma program as credit toward a baccalaureate degree. But there is complexity in recognizing diploma credits at a one-for-one value when the programs of study differ between years one and two of the diploma program and years one and two of the degree.
• Block transfer pathways maximize credit for prior learning and reduce additional financial and time requirements for any extra courses that must be taken to mitigate significant gaps in the curriculum.
  • Two plus two – This refers to two years of successful study in a diploma-level program and transfer into year three of a specific four-year affinity degree program. This is the model Humber is using for eligible graduates of paralegal diploma programs to enter year three of its Bachelor of Paralegal Studies.
• Recognition of prior learning is offered to recognize professional and life experience. It requires institutional capacity and appropriate policies/procedures in order to adequately assess previous learning (Humber College, 2019).
• Bridging courses refers to courses developed to bridge a competency gap between outcomes of the first credential and prerequisites of the second (e.g., from a diploma to degree program)
• Laddering refers to the seamless transition from one credential to another, usually of a higher order.

ONTARIO PATHWAYS DEVELOPMENT

Ontario college baccalaureate degrees are regulated by a provincial body, unlike the province’s universities which are autonomous. While the Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB) doesn’t govern the Ontario certificate or diploma programs, it does assess an institution’s pathways into degree programs in accordance with the Ontario Qualifications Framework. The framework provides a detailed account of expectations relevant to individual credentials:

• Overall program design and outcome emphasis
• Preparation for employment and further study
• Typical duration
• Admission requirements
• Depth and breadth of knowledge
• Conceptual and methodological awareness/research and scholarship
• Communication skills
• Application of knowledge
• Professional capacity/autonomy
• Awareness of limits of knowledge (Ministry of Colleges and Universities, 2018)

Each credential is delineated from the next (for example, between Ontario Certificate, Ontario Diploma, and Baccalaureate Degree). There are clear expectations for distinctions among credentials, presenting a potential impediment to a college’s ability to grant full credit for the first two years of study completed in a diploma program without the need for additional study. In fact, the 2020 PEQAB manual for colleges states:

Colleges wishing to provide bridges into any of their programs should adduce all relevant evidence. PEQAB’s criteria for approving bridging programs requires Colleges to show how they are addressing two gaps. First, the content and skills gap. PEQAB requires that the first half of the degree develops knowledge differently than the first two years of a diploma, requiring some sort of make-up or reach-back courses for a successful transfer. Second, the breadth gap. Students in diploma programs do not study any degree breadth courses and this presents a gap that needs to be addressed to ensure transfer students still meet all degree level learning outcomes. (PEQAB, 2020, p. 62)

To lessen an unfair burden on students, PEQAB says it is permissible to count non-core diploma level breadth courses at full value toward the 20% breadth requirement in a degree. PEQAB also requires that any transfer arrangement commits to measuring the degree of difficulty gap for transfer students as determined by persistence, graduation rates, and average final grades, as compared to those students who studied all four years in the degree program.

If the transfer student measurements fall significantly below those of the other students, then additional bridge elements will need to be introduced.

Bound by its requirement to adhere to the Ontario Qualifications Framework, PEQAB has exhibited an effort to reduce the burden to students for whom additional courses can represent increased investments in time and money, and duplicate learning. This burden can be lessened by adopting an outcomes-based model as opposed to one that requires study of the same materials, or common inputs, going into the higher credential.

Common inputs mean identical admission requirements for all students, and an assumed achievement of prerequisite knowledge; outcomes-based models indicate that everyone is assessed to the same standards at the point of exit to earn the degree. Gawley and McGowan (2006) write that university staff try to explain to students that in their college studies they may not have covered all the material that the university course covers and that the university wants to ensure that all incoming students have a comparable knowledge base to the students who have taken courses at the university.

Humber has embarked on an approach to help eligible graduates transfer from the two-year Paralegal Education diploma program (and paralegal diploma programs at other Ontario colleges) into year three of its Bachelor of Paralegal Studies by using the dynamics capabilities theory to help implement change in a more rapid manner than usually occurs in the post-secondary education system.

DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES THEORY

As referenced earlier in this chapter, dynamic capabilities is a strategic management theory that originated with, and has been elaborated by, David Teece at UC Berkeley, whose seminal work proposed an alternative to game theory. The theory contends that leveraging capabilities specific to an organization gains more advantage in a competitive marketplace. Dynamic capabilities, as described by Teece et al. (1997), refers to:

The capacity to renew competencies so as to achieve congruence with the changing business environment; certain innovative processes are required when time-to-market and timing are critical, the rate of technological change is rapid, and the nature of future competition difficult to determine. (p. 515)

Humber is using this framework to overcome the historic hierarchal approach of post-secondary education in Ontario that has traditionally disadvantaged college diploma students from moving into bachelor’s degree programs. Humber, as a modern-day polytechnic, believes that by making degree completion easier to understand and navigate, while retaining all pedagogical integrity and using proven methods of assessment, it will have the greatest potential to impact college students in a positive manner.

Humber obtains this dynamic capability from its unique combination of characteristics and assets. One of those is the number of credentials offered at the institution from certificates (generally one year of study), diplomas (two years), advanced diplomas (three years), to honours baccalaureates (four years of study).¹ The relatively new block transfer arrangement to help Paralegal diploma graduates complete Humber’s baccalaureate in Paralegal Studies takes advantage of this characteristic. The previous pathway was structured as a two-plus-three model, meaning that Paralegal diploma students only received recognition for half of their academic efforts. The new two-plus-two model fully recognizes all of the learning that students acquire in their paralegal diploma studies. Based on PEQAB’s recommendation, Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities recognized and affirmed this faster block transfer pathway during the consent renewal application for Humber’s Bachelor of Paralegal Studies program on April 29, 2019 (PEQAB, 2019).

Another dynamic capability of Humber is its close relationship with accrediting bodies—in this case, the Law Society of Ontario (LSO). Humber also has a strong internal culture that is mission-driven and collegial. It has achieved a climate of trust that helps to create the conditions for using the tenets of dynamic capabilities. A further dynamic capability is Humber’s close relationship with numerous post-secondary institutions in Canada and globally, which allow for more student mobility. Humber’s multilateral approach to block transfer was established more than 15 years ago and has led to the establishment of more than 650 pathways to date. Information management is critical, where state-of-the-art education requires annual reflection of the curriculum and some form of adaptation. When curriculum changes are contemplated, impacts to transfer agreements must be easily analyzed so that any changes affecting one or more diploma-to-degree routes can be appropriately considered and partners notified, where necessary. To this end, Humber has launched HQ, a multi-module portal that includes, among other things, a database with reporting functionality to achieve this (Humber College, n.d.-b).

The new block transfer pathway for Paralegal Education diploma graduates into year three of the Bachelor of Paralegal Studies program makes use of a bridging course called Critical Literacy to help students close the content and skills gap that PEQAB requires for diploma to degree transfers. The Critical Literacy course uses an adaptive learning system that is based on the IBM Watson artificial intelligence platform. Oxman and Wong (2014) describe adaptive learning as “…a learning process where the content taught or the way such content is presented changes or adapts, based on the responses of the individual student…Technology-enhanced, computerized, or digital adaptive learning takes what the expert instructor does, automates it for scale, and potentially improves its effectiveness” (p.5).

Humber’s Critical Literacy course is delivered using the Ametros AI-driven, Experiential Learning Platform. This platform helps students to apply knowledge and practice essential skills like critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making in a contextually authentic environment. Students are required to interact using natural language with AI-driven clients, co-workers, supervisors, and other characters via simulated email and text-based chat. Through this adaptive process, they gain concrete experience in a carefully designed narrative that works toward the resolution of a problem or project (C. Pillar, personal communication, October 22, 2020). The course takes students through a scenario where they must use thinking and writing skills to interpret and evaluate a public health crisis in the city of Toronto. They do this in a simulation where they have just been hired by a public relations firm that specializes in crisis management. Through a series of emails, videos, and other learning materials, students engage in professional communications that help to hone their thinking, problem-solving, and writing capabilities. Thus, this bridging course not only allows students to advance directly from the diploma to the degree without the additional year, but it also minimizes the time required to complete the bridging course by leveraging AI-based adaptive learning.

CREATING OPTIMAL PATHWAYS

Historically, none of the bachelor’s degrees developed by Ontario colleges were built to sit atop existing diplomas. In part, this was a function of provincial policy, and in part it was simply adherence to the conventions that emerged early in the development of degrees across the Ontario college system. The block transfer pathway into the Bachelor of Paralegal Studies program is available to eligible graduates of all eight paralegal diploma programs offered by Ontario’s publicly funded college system. This was possible because they are all accredited by the LSO (Law Society of Ontario, 2020). The LSO’s Paralegal Education Program Accreditation Policy requires that all accredited programs deliver 18 “Compulsory Legal Courses” to be delivered in a prescribed sequence. The accrediting body further stipulates a minimum number of instructional hours for each course. Taken together, the minimum time requirement for all 18 courses totals 590 hours. The LSO has also set out 306 course competencies that must be covered throughout the 18 required courses. The granularity of the Law Society’s accreditation requirements ensures that each of the eight paralegal diploma programs in Ontario colleges are essentially identical in terms of learning outcomes.

As an accredited program, Humber’s paralegal degree also must cover the 306 course competencies set out by the LSO throughout those same 18 required courses (Law Society of Ontario, n.d.). Owing to the four-year structure of the Bachelor of Paralegal Studies, Humber degree students complete 32 paralegal courses, gaining increased depth of knowledge. This structure affords the paralegal degree—uniquely among accredited paralegal programs in Ontario—the opportunity to take a more in-depth study into four of the 18 courses: Tort and Contract Law, Small Claims Court, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Legal Writing (Humber College, 2020). The advantage of the degree program is that it provides students with a more expansive treatment and study of legal topics that are relevant to the profession than they can receive in a two-year course of study. For instance, in addition to the minimum of 590 instructional hours in Compulsory Legal Courses, each accredited paralegal program must offer a supervised field placement of at least 120 hours “that relate to a paralegal’s permitted scope of practice or support becoming a well-rounded paralegal graduate” (Law Society of Ontario, 2020). Humber’s Bachelor of Paralegal Studies program requires students to complete a work-integrated learning placement in the paralegal profession of 420 hours. Also, the paralegal degree offers its students 10 additional courses, totaling 378 instructional hours that support learners in becoming well-rounded paralegals. These additional courses include such diverse topics as Indigenous Legal Perspectives, Insurance Law, Court and Government Office Administration, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Philosophy of Law, and the capstone course, entitled Access to Justice.

The Access to Justice course is unique to Humber’s Bachelor of Paralegal Studies compared to the other accredited paralegal programs in Ontario, and represents many of the hallmarks of its polytechnic home. This capstone course allows students to engage in applied research. They investigate an access to justice problem and the potential implications for the paralegal profession, and develop an analytical framework from a multitude of perspectives, including law reform, legal process, legal services, and social impact. Several of the research projects to come out of this course have been published in the Humber Journal of Paralegal Access to Justice — a publication of Thomson Reuters Canada. The journal’s mandate is to critically examine the scope of paralegal practice and the role of Ontario’s paralegals in advancing access to justice (Aron, 2018).

In an email exchange with the Program Coordinator of Humber’s Bachelor of Paralegal Studies, Bernard Aron, the overarching benefit of the degree completion for students who wish to pursue further studies was abundantly evident; the program has seen student mobility from paralegal diploma to paralegal degree to a law degree to further graduate studies. As Aron noted:

Our [Bachelor of Paralegal] graduates have been accepted for admission to Law Schools in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Australia. In Canada, several students have attended and graduated from the University of Windsor Law School in Windsor, Ontario; two graduates attended and graduated from the University of British Columbia Law School in Vancouver, British Columbia; and one graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Ontario. Two students recently received admission to the J.D. Program at the University of Windsor commencing in the Fall 2020 semester. Another graduate is attending Law School at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia. A further graduate received admission to the Faculty of Law at Ryerson University being in the inaugural class of their law program. Canadian Law Schools require a strong grade in the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Fifteen of our graduates are currently lawyers in private practice in Canada….Graduates attending Law School in England and Ireland are accepted into the Senior LL.B. degree program and obtain their law degree in two years. After graduating from the Senior LL.B. programs, three of our graduates were accepted into and attended the one-year LL.M. degree program at Osgoode Hall Law School, the University of Toronto Law School and the University of British Columbia Law School. (B. Aron, personal communication, October 21, 2020)

By leveraging Humber’s dynamic capabilities described earlier in this chapter, the college, as a true polytechnic, has helped paralegal diploma graduates have an accessible block transfer into its Bachelor of Paralegal Studies program so they may graduate with a baccalaureate after two additional years of study, instead of the previous three. Also, eligible graduates may go on to study in law schools in Canada and abroad, as well as further laddering into related master’s programs. This helps to fulfill Humber’s mandate in its 2018 – 2023 Strategic Plan for accessible education. By addressing the skills and content gap for transfer students with the Critical Literacy course, Humber is truly developing the means to fulfill this mandate under the plan’s Priority 4 which is to “empower students by transforming the learning environment to offer more choices in how, what, when and where they learn,” particularly to “develop personalized and adaptive learning experiences that facilitate student success and engagement” (Humber College, 2018).

The paralegal block transfer pathway is one of several ways Humber is fulfilling its strategic plan mandate. Another venture, currently under active development, is a partnership with Sault College to co-deliver a Bachelor of Engineering program in Mechatronics where students may carry out their studies at either of the colleges, and through online learning, work on team projects with students from both colleges (Sault College, n.d.). The program is slated to begin in fall 2021. This offers a distinct advantage for students in northern Ontario to access polytechnic degree programming while staying in their own communities. Taken together, these innovative approaches, leveraging Humber’s dynamic capabilities, demonstrate the college’s commitment to leadership in polytechnic education.

Endnotes

^{1 Humber also offers certificates of apprenticeship in certain trades such as plumbing and electrical, as well as graduate certificates commonly referred to as postgraduate studies for students who have completed undergraduate programs.}

References