Bachelor of Commerce (Digital Marketing) - Postsecondary ...

pathways within their region. The colleges have become more competitive throughout the
country and internationally but that will never offset the regional function of the college. There is
still something in the neighbourhood of 50‐60% regional students.”
“We are at a time of great change in the college system; we’re just not really clear on where we
are going.... Mohawk’s articulation program makes the most sense to me and makes them more
A‐level.”
With the offering of degrees comes the need to attract higher quality students.
Some respondents were concerned about whether the applicants to the program would be of high
enough calibre to meet the standards of a degree. A higher level of math and English skills would be
necessary for success in these degrees compared to the standards accepted for diplomas. Some
Stakeholders suggested that standardized tests may have to be put in place to ensure that students
entering the degrees would be meeting standards. Again, this brings forth the issue of maintaining an
accessible educational pathway into the college system, as a couple of Stakeholders noted.
“Most of our students that have come into marketing for diploma programs have not been
strong in mathematics, statistics. This would be really good to focus on. We would need to
attract a different type of students than what we have brought into our two‐year diploma
program. Generally many of them lack the skill s needed to succeed in that area. […] Maybe, if
this was a sub‐discipline, we would have to test students’ mathematics skills. To deal with
analytics and other aspects of marketing, students should have a deeper understanding and skill
set for finance, accounting and math.”
“I wonder too, will they look at people's English and math skills before they come in. I think those
criteria at the beginning will set the people who pass to be more successful. Is it grade 12 with a
certain average I’m assuming they’ll let the WRIT assessment stand for these. They might
change the WRIT and make it a more rigorous test for people entering these programs.”
As college students commonly prefer courses that are highly specific to their career trajectory, there is
a concern that students may be resistant to the high number of general education courses that will be
required in the degree programs.
“The feedback we get from students is that they don’t see the relevance of taking courses
outside of discipline, even some of the business courses. If they are taking accounting, they don’t
see why they should take a marketing course. If 20% of program is non‐discipline related I think
we’ll get feedback saying that’s too much. It looks like half the courses are discipline specific, and
25% are general education and 25% are business related but not discipline specific. Maybe
students will expect a higher % of discipline related courses.”
LKSB Degree Program Feasibility Study • 2011
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