Grade 12 students at R.D. Parker Collegiate could be taking university courses prior to being a university student, thanks to a partnership between the School District of Mystery Lake and the University College of the North(UCN.)
During the School District of Mystery Lake’s school board meeting Jan. 27, R.D Parker principal Rob Fisher, and Chris Reddy, UCN’s vice president of strategic services and development spoke to trustees about the partnership.
“We talked talking about the possibility of dual credits. It would be in partnership with the School District of Mystery Lake, R.D. Parker, and UCN. What dual credits are is our students will go to UCN and take first year university courses, they get university credit, and at the same time they get Grade 12 elective credits,” Fisher explained.
Since the agreement is in the final stages, the course has been picked, Reddy told trustees. “It’s a UFW intro to psych course, so it’s a six credit course, at university credit level. The course itself will be transferable to all of the institutions in Manitoba and if the student goes outside of Manitoba the institutions have a process to recognize the course.”
The project is being done through the Institute of Urban Studies (IUS), an independent research arm of the University of Winnipeg.
Seventeen students from the high school are ready to enroll in the course, with classes taking place on Wednesday evenings, Fisher says. “They will be going on Wednesdays to get the six credit hours until June 10, a week before their exams start. They’ll be doing three-and-a-half hour classes on Wednesdays from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., and three times in that time period they have to do an extra class.”
The best part, Fisher says, is the students will not have to pay for anything. Through funding, UCN and IUS will be covering tuition and books for the future university students.
Reddy says this is the first time the university has dealt with the psychology course, so there are a few loose ends to tie up. “We’ve got our approval from Manitoba education, we have our piece together, we’re just working on the last details. We are trying to get the kids into accelerated admission, because they’re not admitted as regular student at this point, because they’re in high school.”
Trustee Ryan Land mentioned an English dual credit that took place while he was principal of R.D Parker. His concern was and still is scholarships. “One of the issues at the time were scholarships. We had a long list essentially but there wasn’t clarity around if that would preclude someone from being a first-year student anymore. A lot of schools offer entrance admission into university, and they couldn’t assure us that wouldn’t mean someone could qualify for the scholarships.”
Fisher says they have already thought of that concern, along with the course affecting the grade point average. “I didn’t want any of our students to lower their grade point average, by getting a 70 per cent in this course. What I found out was it’s up to us to decide how to deal with the marks on a local basis. We’re not going to include this mark in the grade point average unless it increases the student’s grade point average.”
Reddy agreed saying the instructor has been informed he will be dealing with high school students along with university students. “For a lot of the students this is their first time in post-secondary, and the rules are somewhat different. It’s our intent that they don’t end up with a lower grade, and they know when there’s no penalty.”
Fisher finished by saying this dual credit course will not only help students get an early start on university courses, but will help some students decide whether or not university is for them. “I don’t know if they know they’re going to go to university or not, but they’ll try the course, pass it, and realize they can do this.”
The course is set to begin this month.
