Over the past 40 years, Georgian College has evolved into a hub for post-secondary education in central Ontario by understanding and meeting the needs of its students and area employers.

Georgian College recently assessed its commitment to providing students with quality learning opportunities and teaching excellence by taking part in its first Program Quality Assurance Process Audit (PQAPA).

A team of accredited auditors from the Ontario College Quality Assurance Service visited Georgian campuses and reviewed a self-study.

Georgian received the highest possible marks in all six areas scored – five individual criteria and one overall rating. No college scored higher.

The provincial audit team commended Georgian for “living the quality assurance and continuous improvement processes as these are clearly embedded in the culture and day-to-day activities.”

In particular, the College received commendations in six areas:

• How it organized the audit and self-study;
• The senior management team’s commitment to quality;
• The Centre for Teaching and Learning as a “key vehicle” for supporting quality initiatives;
• Georgian’s faculty performance review process;
• Library Commons, the Learning Centres and Write On!; and,
• Internal and external partnerships.

“The results of the audit show that Georgian consistently provides quality educational experiences to a diverse student population,” says Janice Priest, Dean, Centre for Teaching and Learning and Liberal Arts and Chair of the PQAPA team.

“The self-study offered an excellent opportunity to engage our staff and faculty members in discussion around quality in teaching and learning as a key priority of the College.”

The PQAPA is a provincial standard for college post-secondary program quality assurance. It supports the responsibility of each college to manage the quality of its own programs and is intended to review the existing quality assurance practices in place at each college.