Cambrian College’s civil engineering technology advanced diploma program has received a five-year accreditation from Technology Accreditation Canada.
That means the program met the standards set out by the aforementioned organization.
“Accreditation is a really important part of what we stand for as a college,” said Cambrian president Bill Best. “These are external validations of the things we do.”
The fact that Cambrian is receiving five- and six-year accreditations shows the faith these accrediting bodies have in the college, he said.
When a post-secondary institution receives a conditional accreditation, where they need to make changes, it's usually for two years.
Civil engineering technology program co-ordinator Jeff Walker said a lot of work went into securing the accreditation for his program.
“As we go through the accreditation process, we learn of things that we need to work on in our program, things that could use a little bit more revitalization,” he said.
“One of those was our civil engineering lab, where we talked about the fact that it could be rejuvenated. This was a mechanism for us to be able to get some capital money to regreen our civil lab and make it look more modern.”
Having the accreditation means graduates of the program are able to work across Canada without having to write other exams, Walker said. “It gives them more mobility,” he said.
Technology Accreditation Canada executive director Richard Stamper visited Cambrian on April 28 to present college officials with the accreditation certificate.
“Jeff (Walker) estimated that about 200 hours were put into providing all of the information,” Stamper said. “It's a very rigorous accreditation process. It's a real challenge, but they did it with flying colours.”
Two other programs also received accreditation: English for academic purposes received a five-year accreditation, and the magnetic resonance imaging graduate certificate program received a six-year accreditation.
