Kevin Quinlan
Kevin Quinlan serves as the Principal, Truro Campus, Nova Scotia Community College. Over a span of 33 years in post-secondary education, Dr. Quinlan has worked at a number of colleges and universities, and currently is a p/t faculty member and mentor in Walden University’s Doctor of Philosophy programs in Community College Leadership and Adult Education Leadership, and an Adjunct Professor in the University of Prince Edward Island-Holland College’s certificate and degree partnership programs in adult education.
At the Nova Scotia Community College, Kevin is a member of the Senior Leadership Forum, Chair of the college’s Research Ethics Board, and serves on the Applied Research Network of the Atlantic Provinces Community College Consortium. On the national level, he is a member of an Association of Canadian Community Colleges Working Group that established a partnership with the Rural Community College Alliance (RCCA). RCCA represents the interests of U..S. colleges serving rural communites.
Dr. Quinlan is a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of New Brunswick, and the University of Toronto, and his interests lie in the theory and practice of adult education and training, community education, community/sustainable development, and learning theory.
CVA Report – January, 2010
I open this article with a note of appreciation to Dr. Don Glendenning and Pierre Morin for inviting me to be a contributing reporter to the Canadian Vocational Association (CVA) magazine and website. In this 1st article I decided to outline the current profile and network we enjoy across the four Atlantic Provinces with senior leadership at the College of the North Atlantic (CNA), the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC), and Holland College (HC) entering into a partnership to create the Atlantic Provinces Community College Consortium (APCCC). See www.apccc.ca
In the Atlantic region our four college systems continue to operate as province-wide institutions with centralized college administration and senior leadership, and campus-based administration for local, community leadership. As well, through a partnership with the government of Qatar, the College of the North Atlantic has a campus that boasts some of the finest college facilities to be found anywhere See www.cna-qatar.com
That said, the New Brunswick government is currently working on creating what can be defined as English and French/Anglophone and Francophone colleges as a way to better respond to and meet the needs of New Brunswick’s citizens through institutions that have a cultural lens, and to engage the respective cultural communities in shaping their own destinies. On February 9, 2010, the New Brunswick government announced in the Legislature the creation of these two institutions, each with their own respective campuses. As this is a historic transition in Atlantic Canada, following is the government’s press release:
Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour
Bill will create English, French community colleges (10/02/09)
Feb. 9, 2010
FREDERICTON (CNB) – Legislation to establish autonomous English and French community college corporations was introduced in the legislative assembly today.
“For more than 20 years, previous governments were content to quietly talk about doing this without taking any concrete action,” said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Donald Arseneault, who introduced the New Brunswick Community Colleges Act.
“Today, we can say ‘mission accomplished,’ ” said Arseneault. “Since the community college corporations will be autonomous, they will be more focused on students, and their programs will be more centred on the labour market. I am confident that, as autonomous institutions, our community college corporations will contribute greatly as we continue to build the best post-secondary education system in Canada.”
Each community college corporation will be headed by a board of governors. Each community college corporation will have a president / chief executive officer selected by its respective board.
The head office of the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) will be in Fredericton, while the head office of the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB) will be in Bathurst. They will each have a network of campuses:
NBCC:
CCNB
Arseneault said the community college corporations will be more innovative, accessible, relevant and transparent, adding that they will be in a better position to establish partnerships for programs and research with other post-secondary institutions, the private sector, and professional associations. The community college corporations will be eligible for funding sources currently not open to them. Federal funding, for instance, is not always available to government bodies as they are to community colleges and other educational institutions.
Arseneault said the community college corporations will be able to take advantage quickly of opportunities and to adapt to changes in the labour market. The community college corporations will develop more applied, technical, and vocational programs to prepare students for jobs in demand.
He said the community college corporations will need to be more accountable to their clientele, namely the students, companies and taxpayers of New Brunswick.
This initiative is part of the provincial government’s investment to modernize the community college system: $120 million in capital projects over two years.
Since 2006, nearly 1,000 seats have been added to the overall post-secondary education network, not counting the 1,500 extra seats that will soon be available. This makes a total of 2,500 seats, which Arseneault said will create better learning opportunities for New Brunswickers and help the government attain its self-sufficiency objective by 2026.
The transformation of the community college system was one of the priority action items outlined in Be Inspired. Be Ready. Be Better. The Action Plan to Transform Post-Secondary Education in New Brunswick. This document, in return, reflected commitments made in 2006 by the government in the Charter for Change to transform New Brunswick into a leader post-secondary education and training.
A second area of note in Atlantic Canada is the research ‘arm’ of APCCC, the Atlantic Research Network comprising Directors of Research and/or senior researchers from each of the region’s colleges. The group’s activities are coordinated through the office of the APCCC Executive Director, a position currently based in Halifax and held by Ken McCrae. The Research Working Group has been in place for some 7 years now and, in addition to pursuing individual college or joint research opportunities, it has a primary aim of either developing or strengthening each other’s capacity in research. More on the Network and its projects in articles to come!
Kevin Quinlan, Ed.D.
Principal
NSCC, Truro Campus
