The Canadian Community College in the 1980s: Strategies for Survival
Keywords:
community colleges, Canadian post-secondary education, educational policy, college governance, access to education, socio-economic changeAbstract
This article analyzes the strategies which the community college systems in Canada must adopt if they are to survive without compromising their fundamental goals during the coming decade. In an attempt to place the colleges' problems within a broader perspective, the article opens with a short discussion of the conflict between value systems which is characteristic of the development of certain socio-cultural institutions in Canada. The value systems described were also present in the evolution of the community college concept, and are important in analyzing the strategies outlined later. A section is devoted to an historical description of the social and political forces which created the community colleges. This is followed by reference to data gathered in recent research studies which focus on the current status of the colleges. Finally, the article examines the essential strategies needed in the coming decade for colleges to survive the economic, political, and social pressures threatening to overwhelm the innovative and idealistic principles on which these colleges were originally established.
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