Watching the Launch of BCIT’s Education Plan

Watching the Launch of BCIT’s Education Plan

This piece was written by FSA leadership with input from FSA members. 

As BCIT prepares to roll out its 2019-21 Education Plan the FSA is keeping an eye on its contents to ensure that it meets the needs of both learners and educators and other employees at BCIT.

Through conversations with FSA members we already have some questions we hope will be addressed.

These include but are not limited to:

• How much consultation was done with EdCo and was the input collected during BCIT staff consultations appropriately factored into the development of the plan?
• Does this plan allow for, and adhere to, BCIT’s duty to consult FSA members on matters of educational significance and the Departmental rights that exist?
• What are the duties and responsibilities of teaching faculty in the implementation of this plan? How do these integrate with existing duties and responsibilities?
• Is the high cost of true and meaningful collaboration in education delivery going to be sufficiently resourced?
• There appears to be a focus on expansion of the Part-Time Studies (PTS) delivery model, how do the substantive concerns of those working in PTS and the BCIT PTS Review that is underway impact this Education Plan?
• Will there continue to be support for the accreditation process that is vital for many of the programs that our members work in?
• Do our learners need interdisciplinary learning or interprofessional learning as we are hearing from our industry partners?

References to specific areas are drawn from the BCIT Emerging Strategies document (Loop link – BCIT employees only).

Specifically:

• Will there but sufficient funding to advance ‘Level 2’ (Semi-Flexible Models)?
• Who is responsible for ‘Level 3’ (Fixed Inter-Disciplinary Models) offerings? Who deals with the courses? Who ‘owns’ it?
• In ‘Level 4’ (Open Multi-Disciplinary) of the plan: how does this align with BCIT’s commitment to “job readiness” for our students? What does this offering change for the work of our FSA members who advise students towards careers paths?
• For the ‘Experimental and Work-Integrated Learning’ approach – how will this be funded?
• Why is the term ‘Centres for Competence’ being used instead of ‘Centres for Excellence’ which is a term recognized in external research funding?

The FSA supports a strong education plan that meets the needs of both learners and those providing the education. We are not opposed to interdisciplinary models that are purposeful and pedagogically sound. Indeed, there are existing models of this at BCIT already, supported via EdCo and accreditation processes. As stated in the Emerging Strategies document about the Interdisciplinary Centres of Competence (p.14): “This cannot be done off the side of one’s desk.” – we would say that no work can or should be done off the side of one’s desk. In order for BCIT to live up to its purpose, values, and commitments as a public, post-secondary institution, all work must be properly resourced and supported so that our members along with their colleagues can deliver the best possible education to learners.

Following the full launch of the BCIT 2019-21 Education Plan the FSA will be reaching out to members for their reactions.