London South Campus celebrates grand opening

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Mary Pierce, the dean of business, information technology, and part-time studies and the dean of the London South Campus, talked about the journey from touring the former Westervelt College building to creating the new Fanshawe College campus during the London South Grand opening.

Fanshawe College staff and faculty got a chance to check out the London South Campus during its grand opening on Feb. 28.

The College’s newest campus, the former Westervelt College building, opened in September 2019 and welcomed students pursuing the business and information systems, business management, retirement residence management, and agri-business management graduate certificate programs.

“This location serves as a gateway to the City of London and we’re so grateful to our local community partners and businesses that have been so welcoming to us as we arrived here in London South,” Dr. Nord Mensah, the associate dean for the London South Campus said during opening remarks. “Fanshawe’s very proud to be part of the London South Community and we are also very pleased that our students, which number presently at 404, and will be at close to 1,000 by this fall are bringing new vibrancy to the area.”

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Patricia Hoffer, the chair of Fanshawe’s board of governors, spoke about Fanshawe’s graduation-employment rate, where 90.3 per cent of all Fanshawe grads find employment within six months of graduating. The College’s rate is the highest of all Ontario colleges and is more than four per cent above the provincial average.

Hoffer also said that 400 students at the London South Campus have part-time jobs in the area and the College’s population grew by 6.4 per cent this academic year.

Ward 14 Coun. and Fanshawe alumnus Steve Hillier spoke during opening remarks. He encouraged the London South students to talk to their teachers and to meet people in the South London area after class.

“You’re all international students. You’re here in London for the very first time. This is the life experience you will never forget,” Hillier said.

Ward 12 Coun. Elizabeth Peloza, London North Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos, London-Fanshawe MP Lindsay Mathyssen and Elgin-Middlesex- London MPP Jeff Yurek’s executive assistant Delany Leitch were also present.

Mary Pierce, the dean of business, information technology, and part-time studies and the dean of the London South Campus, said the journey to a new campus began around a year ago when members of the College walked through the building. She said when exploring the new building, it’s hard to imagine it wasn’t part of Fanshawe just a year ago.

“You really can’t even believe that one year ago last week, we had not leased this building,” Pierce said. “None of this construction had happened.”

The College also created new programming, performed community work, and hired new staff to bring the London South Campus to life.

Thanuja Abraham, a business management student, came to Canada from India and started studying in January. After hearing about the case study component of the business management program, she wanted to study at Fanshawe.

“Once you’re done your two-year course and when you start working, you need to face real-life situations,” Abraham said. “You need to take decisions, you need to solve problems, so that’s what we’re doing in class.”

The case studies teach the students about real London scenarios. The students also don’t need to do any additional research because they know about the companies and market from their program. Abraham also wanted to study at Fanshawe because of their graduate employment rate and facilities.

“The teachers are very professional. You can meet them any time,” she said. “The number of hours that we spend in college is competitively lesser than any of courses at any other colleges and we get to do a lot of things on our own.”

Visitors had a chance to tour the London South Campus during the day.