How Intake Suspensions, Program Suspensions and Program Cancellations Happen

—From the desk of Taya Whitehead, Vice-President, Education & Students

As you are likely aware, the college is making strategic adjustments to adapt to the reduction in enrolment caused by changes to federal immigration policy.

We have already announced that we’re pausing intakes for some programs. These intake suspensions primarily focus on postgraduate programs impacted by the policy changes. In alignment with these suspensions, instructional workforce adjustments have begun in BCGEU and SCFA employee groups.  

We are currently accepting applications for spring 2025 and beyond, and as these numbers come in, we’re adjusting program offerings to align with the number of students we’re expecting.

The Processes

There are three ways that we talk about programs when we are reviewing enrolments. An intake suspension simply means we won’t be running admissions into a program, but we aren’t suspending or cancelling the program itself. Students can still continue with their classes and intakes may run at other, more desirable, times or once review occurs. For a full program suspension, application numbers are the guide, and the school chair, dean and vice-president, education & students, approve the suspension. This provides us an opportunity to continue to graduate students—even as they are finishing their final classes with us.

A program cancellation occurs based on a variety of factors. When a program is suspended, EdCo is notified, and the program can go through a process to be reinstated with changes or reviewed to determine if cancellation is required. In the case of a program cancellation, EdCo makes the recommendation to the Selkirk College Board of Governors, which provides the formal approval for cancellation.

Policy 8101: Academic Programs outlines these processes.

As we move through this period of uncertainty and change, we are committed to supporting employees, students and community members. We are looking at how our programming supports our new strategy and labour market needs, and we are confident in our ability to offer relevant, inventive and sustainable education.