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The improvement of teaching and learning in the Canadian post-secondary sector has grown in importance over the past fifty years as seen by the rise of the field of educational development. Educational Developers (EDs) can now be found at almost every publicly-funded college and university in the country and are increasingly integral to institutions of higher learning. However, as EDs engage in such a variety of multi-level support, it is difficult to precisely define their role. This paper will examine the role of the Canadian ED and how it has grown in complexity through an overview of the field of Canadian educational development, environmental influences on EDs, how their work is enacted, current challenges, as well as present and future directions of the role. A greater understanding of EDs will enable institutions to make effective use of these individuals, and to offer them the tailored support they require to excel.

This paper documents the development of a unique institution in Canadian higher education, the university college in British Columbia. From its roots as a comprehensive community college, the university college was confronted with numerous legislative and policy changes which culminated in its current claim to be called a regional university. In support of this assertion, a number of issues are addressed, including the role and mandate of the university college, academic freedom and tenure, governance, administration, and the legal status under which it was constituted. Over a period of 15 years the university college underwent an organizational evolution as remarkable as it was unprecedented. (Contains 1 note.)

Canadian governments and various stakeholder groups are advocating greater interprofessional collaboration amongst health care providers as a fundamental strategy for enhancing coordination and quality of care in the health care system. Interprofessional education for collaborative patient-centred practice (IECPCP) is an educational process by which students/learners (or workers) from different health professions learn together to improve collaboration. The educational system is believed to be a main determinant of interprofessional collaborative practice, yet academic institutions are largely influenced by accreditation, certification and licensure bodies. Accreditation processes have been linked to the continuous improvement of curricula in the health professions, and have also been identified as potential avenues for encouraging educational change and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the characteristics of the national accreditation systems of select Canadian health professional education programs at both the pre- and post-licensure educational levels and to show how these systems support and/or foster IECPCP. A review of the educational accreditation systems of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, occupational therapy and physiotherapy was undertaken through key informant interviews and an analysis of accreditation process documentation. The results of this comparative review suggest that accreditation systems are more prevalent across the health professions at a pre-licensure level. Accreditation at the post-licensure level, particularly at the continuing professional education level, appears to be less well established across the majority of health professions. Overall, the findings of the review also suggest that current accreditation systems do not appear to promote nor foster interprofessional education for collaborative patient-centred practice in a systematic manner through either accreditation processes or standards. Through a critical adult learning perspective we argue that in order for traditional uni-professional structures within the health professional education system to be challenged, the accreditation system needs to place greater value on interprofessional education for collaborative patient-centred practice. (Contains 1 note.)

Until recently, the meaning and origin of the Canadian university degree was well understood by Canadians and around the world. Degrees were only offered by universities and the use of the label university was controlled by legislation in each of the ten provinces and three territories. Institutional membership in the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada signified that an institution was a university-level institution. However, the increased demand in the last two decades of the 20th century for access to university-level degrees has resulted in the provincial-level approval of degrees that are offered in non-university settings. As a result of the increased proliferation of these non-university delivered degrees, the provincial-level degree accreditation processes and the university-level degree granting standards, as represented in the membership criteria for AUCC, are no longer aligned. In this paper, the author traces the changes in degree granting in Canada over the past 15 years or so. Current provincial policies and recent decisions regarding degree granting are outlined. The author suggests a number of implications of the current degree accreditation process in Canada, including the emergence of a new kind of tiering of Canadian undergraduate degrees where different degree accreditation processes have led to different degrees with different meaning and value to the student. In order to protect both the student consumer and the currency of the Canadian undergraduate degree, the author recommends the development of national standards to define both a university-level institution and the quality of the degree it delivers. (Contains 1 table.)

A study of political, behavioral, and institutional differences between Canada and the United States is seen as offering an explanation of the considerable differences in higher education in the two countries. Focus is on priority given to education, incidence of public and private institutions, innovation, accreditation, and academic freedom. (MSE)