The travel and tourism program at Confederation College has been suspended.
The number of student applications for the long-standing program has declined over the last few years, so the college is suspending the program for one year to redevelop it.
“We’re taking an opportunity to take a pause, look at the program as well and we’d like to do a major refresh and revamp on it,” said Judi Maundrell, vice-president of academics.
“I’ve always felt the program needed to reflect a little bit more about Northwestern Ontario so that the graduates coming out were really suited to work in this part of our province,” she said.
Students just finishing up their first year will continue with their second year of the program in the fall as normal. However, the college won’t have an intake of first year students.
Faculty will take the time to rework the curriculum, get out in the field and talk to employers to come up with new, fresh and exciting ideas, said Maundrell.
The revamped program will hopefully help the college attract more students from the rest of the province and Maundrell said the college is looking forward to marketing a fresh program.
Applications have been down across the board at Confederation College this year with a 14 per cent decline from last year.
College president Jim Madder said not as many students are selecting Confederation for their fourth and fifth choice college applications, so in reality, student numbers will only be down two or three per cent in the fall.
“We’re in the midst of some pretty significant demographic changes and the number of people applying from high school across the next four of five years is going to decline,” he said.
The college’s greatest competition is people accepting jobs before or during their studies.
“Can’t argue with people taking jobs, but boy, I’d love to see them finish their studies,” he said.
The decline in applications is a concern to Madder; his preference is for the college to experience continuous growth.
“We’re looking at new markets. We’re looking at attracting people here to our programs from the south,” he said, adding they have a growing number of international students as well.
“We’re not being complacent,” Madder said. “We want to grow our student numbers.”
The college is also seeing some staffing positions being phased out, including its fulltime librarian, through its early retirement incentive program.
Thirty-three people are entering the program and Madder said depending on their student numbers and programming, there could be significant changes in those areas.
On Twitter: @JodiL_reporter
