Question:
Any canadians who can give a brief explanation of the Canadian higher education system? Elizabeth is graduating from grade 13 -- what is that? And Michael, IIRC, went to what was called a "college" for 2 years but didn't graduate and went on to "university" for 4 more years -- finally graduating with a Bachelors degree. I'm a little confused. Can anyone tell me what's up with all of this?
Answer:
Grade 13 is an Ontario-only thing. It's just more courses, in the high-school, with Grade 12 courses as prerequisites, equal to first-year university, but provided to students as part of the K-13 public-school system.
Michael took "university transfer" courses at the community college, and then entered 3rd year at the university, obtaining "transfer credit" for the academic courses which he had already taken. Are you sure that he was at the University for 4 years?
Had he taken "diploma courses", e.g., nursing, or computer information systems, he would have had a graduation ceremony.
To add to your confusion:
As a university college, we offer degree, diploma and certificate programs to about 7,000 students in Kelowna, Penticton, Vernon and Salmon Arm. Another 30,000 students benefit from Continuing Education courses and programs offered in these centres and others in Armstrong, Oliver-Osoyoos, Revelstoke and Summerland.
OUC offers university transfer credits and degree programs in Arts, Science, Education, Fine Arts, Social Work, Nursing and Business Administration. We also provide well-established diploma and certificate programs in business, trades and technology, health and social development, adult education, international and distance education.
There's a nice table on that page, showing the different categories (diploma programs, degree programs, health & social development certificate, adult education programs, and vocational certificate) which this University College offers.
