Feature.

eC hee ens

By Cody Klyne & Dylan Hackett

re all Canadian degrees
created equal? Statements
brought forth by the Global

TV program 16x9 question the
integrity of Douglas College’s joint
degree programs in China.

“Eventually, everybody will
pass—by fair means or foul,”
says former English teacher, Chris
Harpham, interviewed by 16x9,
“many students, and some of the
English teachers, are saying that
this is just an easy way to make
money.”

The January 28 segment,
entitled “Dubious Degrees,”
investigated the quality of Douglas
College degrees awarded in the
college’s joint degree program with
the Heilongjiang Institute of Science
and Technology (HIST) in Harbin,
China—claiming that the academic
standards and examination policies
do not align with those maintained
in Canada for the same Douglas
degrees.

Douglas College president
Scott McAlpine addressed the 16x9
claims in a message sent to students
prior to the episode’s broadcast,
categorizing the allegations as
“simply false.” McAlpine, who was
also interviewed by 16x9, confirmed
that a review of the program
was made in 2010 as a result of
Douglas faculty concerns over HIST
program English competency and
grading of supplemental exams.
McAlpine also noted that—since
the 2010 review—the college
has taken steps to resolve the
program’s issues: raising admission
12

ee a
ee le
standards, reducing business class
sizes, adding ESL instruction to
second-year studies, and changing
exam policies. Further, last month
McAlpine and the Douglas
College Board ordered an external
independent review of the program.
Still, the question remains,
when did Douglas College enter the
foreign education market in China
and, moreover, what has happened
to its once award-winning program
to cause such a stir?

Program history
For Douglas College, it’s an
international partnership 14 years
in the making that found its start
in 1998 at the Shanghai Institute
of Foreign Trade (SIFT). Here, a
20 course (60 credit) Associate
Arts diploma, offered by Douglas
College’s Business Department and
taught by Douglas College faculty,
was combined and fully integrated
with two years of instruction at
SIFT to compose the institute’s
Bachelor of Commerce Program.
It’s in this incarnation
that the joint program won
the “Outstanding Program in
International Education” award
from the Canadian Bureau for
International Education in 2001,
and took second prize for best
international program from the
Shanghai Education Commission.
Six years after the SIFT
program began, in 2004, Douglas
College expanded to Heilongjiang
Institute of Science and Technology
in Harbin, China—offering a similar
joint Douglas College diploma/
HIST degree program.

But, by late 2007, change was in
the air. According to one source, the
“Shanghai government informed
SIFT that it would not provide
approval to renew the joint
program between SIFT & Douglas
College, after the existing
agreement expired in 2008.” When
the partnership faced termination,
things took a turn: Douglas would
begin offering Canadian degrees in
China.

A Canadian degree in Canada vs. a
Canadian degree in China
On paper, there is virtually no
difference between a BBA granted
by Douglas College obtained in
Canada or in China. For example,
HIST student transcripts show 60
credits (20 courses) individually as
though the student attended classes
in Canada, taught by Canadian
faculty. In the case of the student
obtaining a BBA, sources say that
the credits are then represented as
a block transfer, again stating that
it has been obtained 1 Canada.
The similarities continue down to
the final documentation given to
students in China who complete
their BBA, which clearly states on
the front as being awarded in New
Westminster, Canada.

To make this change—from
providing a two-year diploma
as part of a joint partnership to
providing a bona fide Canadian
degree in China—Douglas College
had to articulate (matching the
content of courses that transfer
between post-secondary institutes)
an additional 60 credits to meet
the standards established to earn a

 

 

Canadian degree. Sources state that
what would normally have taken
months (per course) to accomplish
was then done in weeks.

The time in which the
agreement was struck, to the time
the first BBA was handed out in
China, only stands to confirm this
claim. And so, with the addition
of these 60 articulated credits,
the partnership between Douglas
College and its Chinese partner
institutes was allowed to continue.

The difference

“There is no doubt that some
students are about to receive a
Douglas College credential who
have not earned this credential. This
cannot be allowed to occur without
damaging the academic integrity of
the program and diminishing the
credential itself,” says a statement
contained in a 2010 internal report
on the Douglas College China