Interview Story - Accomplishment

I was a new department head for a local community college which was expanding program offerings in order to increase student enrollment. My department, business and commerce, was the largest and viewed as most likely to attract “tertiary level” students. Prior to my arrival, they started offering a 3-year associate degree program which was marketed as a potential flagship program – one that provided a practical degree with a strong salary.

Shortly after my arrival, the first cohort of 60 students was dissatisfied with the curriculum and the length. They complained that they were “guinea pigs” in a dead-end program. Students threatened to go to the media and report us to the Education ministry. By the end of the first year, we had 50% attrition.

It was my responsibility to turn around this situation and this program as quickly as possible.

To de-escalate tensions, I met regularly with the students and heard their concerns. I also arranged for the students to meet with the college president and representatives from the community college secretariat to receive program development updates.

Next, we carefully selected instructors for this group and arranged for guest presenters from other colleges and from the business community. I also checked in with other colleges offering similar programs to see what their challenges were and what strategies they were taking to address them. I learned what was working better for them, and suggested further changes to our curriculum as a result.

Unfortunately, our college administrators were hesitant to make these changes. They were concerned both about cost and further upsetting students.

Finally, after weeks of going back and forth between the disgruntled students and college administrators with no acceptable solution, I reached out to the local university for a review of the program. I requested that a committee with representatives from our college, the secretariat, and the university be set up to conduct a full program review.

In response, a program review task force was set up to do a comprehensive evaluation of the associate degree program. I was the representative designated by my college. The committee met regularly over a six-month period.

By the end of the review process, we had worked out course equivalencies, advanced placement, and articulation agreements for students to transfer smoothly into the bachelor’s degree program at the university. The Committee also recommended that the associate degree be reduced from three years to two years/four semesters.

When the first batch of students completed the associate degree program, most received advanced placements into year 4 of the bachelor’s degree in the business program at the local university – graduating after just a couple of semesters. As a result, the program was more attractive and over the next five years, we experienced a steady increase in enrollments and consistent student satisfaction for this, our flagship program.