Jef Catapang
Life Reporter
The end of the school year will mark the first graduating class from Humber’s Paralegal Studies, e-Business and Industrial Design bachelor’s degree programs, all of which were approved in 2002 and launched in 2003.
Each program now faces the challenge of extension at the end of their initial five-year contract.
As this first batch of graduates leaves Humber, they will play a key part in keeping their programs going, said program co-ordinators.
“Part of the challenge is for students to sell themselves,” said Edmund Baumann, co-ordinator for the e-Business program based at Lakeshore Campus.
Each program has been granted a two-year extension so they can undergo review.
The results of an audit by the college to determine whether to further extend the programs will depend on the graduating class’s performance in the workforce, Baumann said.
“Then perhaps the program can be extended properly for five years.”
Ken Cummings, co-ordinator of the Industrial Design program at North Campus, said the industry response to its first graduating class has already “been very good.”
The program’s profile was boosted after Matthew Finbow, a fourth-year student graduating this year, received media attention for placing third at the 2007 World Automotive Design Competition.
“We hope that it has a sort of moral suasion” to boost funding of the program, Cummings said. “I’m not sure if the college is totally structured to support what degrees require.”
Financial constraints also result in cramped classrooms.
“We’ve been criticized by (the) industry because our shop and facilities are too crowded,” he said. “We have accrediting bodies whose standards we are poised to meet and we do in every regard except for class size. So, if they do a site inspection, we’ll fail.”
The Paralegal Studies graduates from Lakeshore Campus, being the first bachelor’s degree paralegal graduates, have importance away from Humber, said program co-ordinator Bernard Aron.
Ontario’s provincial government recently introduced legislation to make paralegals licensed professionals under the Law Society of Upper Canada.
“We’ve been waiting about twenty years for this to happen,” Aron said, noting his grads “will be able to be not only the first graduates, but the first licensed paralegals as well.”
As a result of the new legislation, the program will be “raising the bar.”
While current instructors all have their Master’s in Law, new quotas will require some staff to have PhDs.
As a result, some faculty members, including Aron, will have to upgrade their credentials.
“I’m planning to pursue my PhD at Osgoode (Hall) Law School,” he said. “In a way, for many of us, it’s something that maybe we’ve thought about doing and now it gives us the impetus to actually pursue it.”
For all three bachelor’s degree programs, the Ontario Ministry of Training, College and Universities, will be interviewing the first graduating classes and their employers to make sure expectations from both sides were met.
“There’s definitely a lot at stake,” Aron said.