Five Core Characteristics

Access - As a tool created by government to promote socio-economic development, a key feature of the community college system is to provide educational opportunities for those in society previously denied access through barriers related to academic achievement, socio-economic status, geographic location or culture. Providing open access to a college education gives historically marginalized populations the opportunity to build knowledge and skills that open up greater social and economic opportunities. Open access initially was intended to mean that anyone applying to a college would be accepted; however, decreasing public funds have made this difficult (Skolnik 2002: 8). As a result, colleges have used other means to promote access, including lower tuition fees than universities, community-based learning centres, expanded programming options that fit a broader range of educational needs, and academic credit for prior learning based on informal life experience. These open access policies have resulted in college participation rates experiencing much higher growth over the last decade when compared to other higher education institutions in Canada (Canadian Council on Learning 2006: 61).

Community orientation - The role of community colleges in promoting socio-economic development is distinctly community-based in nature. While overall responsibility rests with provincial governments, these governments have created governance structures (which are described in greater detail below) that tie colleges to their communities. Colleges are, in practice, both "locally- based and provincially-shaped" institutions (Gallagher 1987: 11). The constitutional separation of powers in Canada has ensured that centralization of higher education has not occurred at the federal level. This decentralized approached enables colleges to address education and training needs that are specific to their own communities.

Learning orientation - colleges were designed to be student-centered through a focus on the teaching and learning experience. This is in conlrast to the high priority given to research within universities. High quality student learning experiences are the key focus of community colleges.

Comprehensiveness - a central component of Canadian community colleges is the provision of a comprehensive curricular model with a broad range of programming. For colleges throughout Canada, this has meant an emphasis on apprenticeships, certificates, diplomas and, increasingly, degrees.

Responsiveness - colleges were created to be nimble and flexible so they can respond to the changes in their external environment. As social and economic conditions change, colleges have the capacity to respond to new education and training needs as they emerge. Ultimately, the ability to be responsive to changing needs is likely the foundational characteristic of Canadian colleges (Skolnik 2002: 11).

Funding

Funding for Canadian community colleges primarily comes from provincial governments, supported by federal government block money transfers to the provinces. Currently, these federal transfers occur through the Canada Social Transfer (CST), which grew out of the previous Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) in 2004. Student tuition fees cover approximately 11% of total higher education costs (Canadian Broadcasting Cooperation 2006). As such, the Canadian college system is accurately described as a publically funded system. At the same time, the fiscal tightening of the 1980s and 90s and the accompanying imperative for colleges to generate an increased portion of their own revenues has resulted in a dramatic increase in private funds within the public system. Currently, 43% of higher education revenues in Canada come from private sources (Kirby 2007: 9).

The increase in private funding within the public college system should be distinguished from an actual private college system in Canada. Private colleges, usually called career colleges, provide for- profit training in specific career areas such as hairdressing, real estate training, computer skills and business. Private colleges receive no government money but are regulated by provincial governments. Overall, they play a fairly insignificant role in Canadian higher education. The number of Canadian graduates of private colleges has dropped by 50% over the last decade, representing only 3.7% of Canadians with some form of higher education (Li 2006).

Governance

Despite the diverse provincial models, governance of community colleges is quite similar across Canada. Unlike Canadian universities, which maintain a level of autonomy largely unequalled in other parts of the world (Dennison 1995a: 124), provincial governments play a large role in the Canadian college sector. Provincial ministries responsible for higher education are active in developing overall policy directions for colleges, distributing funds allocated to colleges by provincial legislatures, providing financial assistance programs and, significantly, appointing members of college Boards of Governors.

Within the parameters set by provincial governments, individual colleges enjoy a fairly considerable