Planing Fanshawe's academic future
The focus is on technology as Fanshawe moves into the future
Fanshawe's teachers and staff has been taking part in an annual review of the college's academic plan as of late.
The series of forums, called Conversations with the Vice-President Academic, consists of five meetings, one of which is scheduled to be held at Fanshawe's Tillsonburg campus for the teachers from the college's satellite campuses.
“I do them once or twice a year on a variety of topics,” said Joy Warkentin, Fanshawe's VP Academic. “I invite faculty and staff to come and have a conversation with me on the subject. These current sessions are about the academic plan. So what I'm doing is a short presentation on where we've come with the academic plan, the progress we've made.”
The Student Union, which Warkentin said will be invited to one of the forums to discuss their ideas, sees the set of meetings as another way that the FSU and the college are both working together to make Fanshawe a competitive college.
“The college definitely has input from the students,” said Travis Mazereeuw, the FSU President. “The Fanshawe Student Union and the college work together to maintain a consistency within the programs and with other colleges, we need higher standards than other colleges, to make the diploma worth more here.”
One of the topics that the FSU has been pushing is technology, Mazereeuw explained. He hopes that some of Fanshawe's more technologically based programs will be updating their operating systems so that students can be trained ahead of the technological curve. As a result, in a few years, when programs change, students will already have the required training.
“We've talked about the progress in our academic plan,” continued Warkentin. “The improvement of graduation rates. They've talked about central focuses of our academic plan they want continued such as our focus on student success. There's been various suggestions about whether we would have more metrics about the use of technology.”
The remaining two, of a total five, forums are scheduled for late November.
Fanshawe's teachers and staff has been taking part in an annual review of the college's academic plan as of late.
The series of forums, called Conversations with the Vice-President Academic, consists of five meetings, one of which is scheduled to be held at Fanshawe's Tillsonburg campus for the teachers from the college's satellite campuses.
“I do them once or twice a year on a variety of topics,” said Joy Warkentin, Fanshawe's VP Academic. “I invite faculty and staff to come and have a conversation with me on the subject. These current sessions are about the academic plan. So what I'm doing is a short presentation on where we've come with the academic plan, the progress we've made.”
The Student Union, which Warkentin said will be invited to one of the forums to discuss their ideas, sees the set of meetings as another way that the FSU and the college are both working together to make Fanshawe a competitive college.
“The college definitely has input from the students,” said Travis Mazereeuw, the FSU President. “The Fanshawe Student Union and the college work together to maintain a consistency within the programs and with other colleges, we need higher standards than other colleges, to make the diploma worth more here.”
One of the topics that the FSU has been pushing is technology, Mazereeuw explained. He hopes that some of Fanshawe's more technologically based programs will be updating their operating systems so that students can be trained ahead of the technological curve. As a result, in a few years, when programs change, students will already have the required training.
“We've talked about the progress in our academic plan,” continued Warkentin. “The improvement of graduation rates. They've talked about central focuses of our academic plan they want continued such as our focus on student success. There's been various suggestions about whether we would have more metrics about the use of technology.”
The remaining two, of a total five, forums are scheduled for late November.
