COVID-19 Impacts NBCC Course Offerings

Significant course changes are coming to campuses at New Brunswick Community College this fall.

The carpentry and welding programs on the Saint Andrews campus along with steel fabrication in Saint John have been suspended.

Ann Drennan, vice-president of academic and research, said Wednesday the changes are mostly due to the impacts of COVID-19.

“We do review and assess programming, that’s an important part for any academic institution. Programs that are meeting key performance indicators for enrolment, for employability for graduates. [It’s] obviously important to actively respond to industry need,” Drennan said.

13 courses have been suspended on campuses in Saint John, Miramichi, Moncton, Saint Andrews and Fredericton due to low enrolment, historic trends and pandemic impacts.

Drennan said program intake is suspended because they don’t have enough students to make it viable.

“It’s not to say that we wouldn’t offer it in the January intake if there was a surge of applications or that we wouldn’t consider putting it on again for the next fall,” Drennan said.

Building engineering technology and building system at the Moncton campus and the fuels technician course in Saint John have been discontinued.

Uncertainty created by the pandemic means several programs that were expected to meet enrolment targets are no longer projected to do so.

Drennan describes the situation as an “ebb and flow” given the external environment we are in.

“So if there is no student demand we’ll hold off until there is student demand and obviously an industry demand as well because some of the industries are feeling COVID more than others,” Drennan said.

The suspended courses include hotel and restaurant operations, international travel and tourism and culinary arts at the Saint Andrews campus of NBCC.