degree of autonomy (Dunlop 1998). Boards of Governors are the key actors in college governance. Each college's board establishes the overall goals, objectives, strategic directions and general oversight of the college. This includes preparation and approval of the college's business plan, budget and annual report, as well as appointment of auditors and approval of auditors' reports. Board members are primarily appointed by the provincial government and represent the interests and expertise within the college's local community. In most colleges, a small number of board positions are reserved for representatives of the college's faculty, administration and student body. This composition of boards, combined with their central role in college governance, is a key factor in maintaining the community orientation of the college system which, in turn, promotes nimbleness and flexibility when addressing changing community education needs.
The primacy of the Board of Governors distinguishes college governance from the bicameral governance structure of Canadian universities. Decision-making within individual Canadian universities is shared between a board and a senate. The university senate incorporates faculty participation in governance through its responsibility for all academic matters. While no such bicameral structure formally exists within Canadian colleges, the expectation that faculty should have a substantive role in decisions around academic matters is pervasive (Owen 1995). Boards of Governors in Canadian colleges have therefore established Academic Councils, sometimes called Education Councils, which are responsible for managing the academic affairs of the college. Academic Councils are made up of college faculty, administrators and students. Academic Councils do not have autonomy in decisionmaking as do university senates, but make recommendations to the college board on such things as the establishment of programs, determination of curricula, matters related to exams and the determination of graduation qualifications. This approach helps ensure that decisions about curriculum and other academic matters remain decentralized.
Boards of Governors also have the authority to establish Program Advisory Committees (РАС). PACs are usually set up for each college program, or group of similar programs, to provide on-going advice on curricula, workforce trends, internship opportunities, program policies and standards. Members are appointed by the college president and tend to be representatives of local employers, licensing bodies, unions, relevant professional associations, community leaders, current students and program graduates. Given their composition, PACs play a critical role in maintaining an ongoing connection between colleges and their communities and local businesses (Leppard 2004). They help ensure that education and training provided by colleges evolves based on changing community socio-economic needs and does so in a timely manner.
Contributions to Socio-Economic Development
Despite its relatively short existence, the Canadian community college system has achieved significant success. As the largest suppliers of higher and adult education in Canada, colleges currently enroll approximately 2.5 million full and part-time students that study at 175 public colleges with campuses or learning centres in over 900 communities (ACCC 2002: 1). The decentralized nature of the system, combining provincial government jurisdiction with local community input through college boards, academic councils and PACs, has enabled the college system to remain responsive and flexible to local social and economic development needs. As a whole, significant success has been achieved in several key areas: providing greater education opportunities for marginalized populations, expanding lifelong learning opportunities for adults in the workforce, increasing economic growth, and decreasing social problems while increasing social savings. Significantly, this has all been done in a manner that has provided a significant return on the Canadian taxpayers' investment in colleges.
Increased education opportunities for marginalized populations
Canadian colleges have been very successful in fulfilling their mandate of providing access to education for people who have historically not had such access. This is in stark contrast to the Canadian university sector. Young people from low income families, for example, are just as likely to attend college as young people from high income families; they are only half as likely to attend university as those from high income families (Canadian Council on Learning 2006: 74). Colleges have also been very successful in providing access to education for aboriginal people, who have faced a long history of economic and social marginalization in Canada. The gap between the proportion of aboriginal people who have college level education and that of the total population is only 8%, compared to 23% at the university level (Canadian Council on Learning 2006: 75). The distribution of many college campuses and learning centres in rural areas has also increased access to higher education for rural
Canadians. The rate of college participation is nearly identical between rural and urban youth (Canadian Council on Learning 2006: 76).
Expanded lifelong learning opportunities for adults
Community colleges and technical institutes play a disproportionately large role in providing adult education and training to Canadians, especially those already in the workforce requiring
