Student Satisfaction
With its commitment to continuous improvement, Columbia College conducts student surveys both at the conclusion of each course and at the completion of each program. These results provide our faculty and staff with valuable insights and opportunities to improve the delivery of classes and the composition of programs.
The following chart presents the results of these surveys for the academic year concluding August 2019. The first chart represents the results from the "Facilitator Course Evaluation" which was designed to gather relevant information associated with the current level of satisfaction of students with their courses and facilitation at Columbia College.
Completion Rates of Students
The term ‘completion rate’ commonly refers to the percentage of students who have completed the program they enrolled in and formally graduated.
Each year Columbia College reports the completion rates of its Certificate and Diploma students to Enterprise and Advanced Education. According to the April 1, 2018 – March 31, 2019 Annual Report for Institutions, Enterprise and Advanced Education reported overall that 94% of Certificate program students and 92% of Diploma program students graduated from Columbia College.
Employment of Graduates
Unfortunately, the Government of Alberta does not, at this time, provide any reports on public institutions. As a result, no formal comparison can be provided. What is interesting to note is that, according to an article by Timothy Sandoval in the Chronicle of Higher Education (July 16, 2012), the lack of standard tracking makes many colleges’ claims of graduate outcomes unreliable. Mr. Sandoval states that few public institutions actually ask students if they were employed in their field of training, and “many count any position at all, even unpaid internship as employment”. These US practices are not the same for private institutions in Alberta, like Columbia College, where provincial regulations are strictly regulated.
The following chart indicates the combined employment and further education rates achieved by Columbia College graduates, for all of Columbia’s provincially licensed programs for 2019-2020:
