Should Nunavut Arctic College change its application process?

Nunavut Arctic College needs to change its admission process in three ways to make it more accessible to the public:

• informing the public about program offerings;

• redesign the placement tests; and

• redesign the application forms.

NAC needs to inform the public about the programs that are being offered at the three campuses, Nunatta, Kitikmeot, and Kivalliq, and at the Community Learning Centres way ahead of time so that the applicants have enough time to apply for programs, write the placement tests, and apply for funding.

Every year, the prospective students are given two weeks’ notice to apply for the programs, which is not enough time to decide if they really want to get into the program. All the other post-secondary institutions release their program offerings three months in advance or more. The NAC should too.

Applicants applying for NAC programs have to write the English and mathematics placement tests regardless of their qualifications.

The college has taken a small step to improve the English test when it was redesigned earlier in 2014, but the math test still needs to be greatly improved. The math test is ambiguous, because it not like a typical assessment instrument.

A test should contain multiple choices, true or false, short answer, and long answer questions. It’s very nerve wrecking for the applicants to write those tests, especially if they haven’t been in school for a while and it makes it even more difficult to write a poorly designed test.

There are several NAC application forms depending on the program you are applying for. There is the standard two-page form, a questionnaire that contains several pages of questions, reference forms, and a transcript request form.

The applicants always run into the same problems with the two-page form and they get overwhelmed with the questionnaire. NAC should redesign the application form and make one standard form for all the courses, so that the applicants can have an easier time to apply for the programs.

NAC has one of the most strenuous application processes for admission in Canada and it prevents people from being admitted to a program. NAC needs to live up to standards for admitting applicants into a program and those standards can be found across the country in any of the post-secondary institutions.

Applicants are not given enough time to apply, they have to write two tests that are poorly designed, and the application forms confuse the applicants and they end up not applying, not entering the necessary information, or entering the wrong information.

If the Government of Nunavut and NAC want Nunavut beneficiary Inuit to get education, they should change their practices, so that Inuit can get higher education regardless of their education background.

(Name withheld by request)
Arctic Bay

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