Program Advisory Committee
Terms of Reference
Mandate
Program Advisory Committees (PACs) provide important liaison between the College and business, industry, government and other relevant organizations.
1. PACs participate in the ongoing review of programs by
- Advising on consistency with College direction and Strategic Plan.
- Advising on content currency and revitalization, identifying graduate skill profiles necessary for graduates to be successful.
- Reviewing the Annual Quality Assurance and Sustainability Report prepared by the program team and making recommendations on potential actions.
- Providing recommendations to the College on facilities and equipment needs of the program.
- Advising on external certifications / micro-credentials as appropriate.
- Identifying future directions and potential areas of growth for the specific business, industry or sector and specifically demand for graduates.
- Assisting with student recruitment and student experiential learning opportunities.
- Identifying and developing new programs, or pathways, in response to the needs of the specific business, industry or sector.
2. PACs are advisory and not administrative or executive in nature and are not in any way responsible for the allocation and utilization of College resources.
Membership
Each PAC must be comprised of a minimum of eight members who are employers, specialists, professionals, community representatives or recent graduates that represent the related field associated with the program or program cluster. PAC members must have relevant backgrounds and experience related to the program or cluster area. The College aims to achieve equitable and inclusive representation in its PAC membership. PAC members are appointed for a three-year term, renewable once if no replacement is available from the respective service/ professional area.
Program Advisory Chair
The Chair must be an external member of the Committee, who is elected from the voting members of the PAC. The Chair serves a three-year term, renewable once.
Meetings
PACs will meet twice per academic year; additional meetings may be scheduled as appropriate. It is the responsibility of the Deans to ensure that meetings are scheduled and PAC members are advised of the date, time and logistics at the start of each semester.
Quorum is required to make and vote on motions and is defined as 50% of the voting members. Provisions may be made to accept electronic votes.
Where physical travel to meetings is not feasible, consideration will be given to the use of technology to enable members to attend.
The Chair will set and approve the agenda.
Deans will ensure that minutes are taken at PAC meetings for recording purposes. Meeting materials will be distributed to PAC members through the Office of the Dean.
Reporting
In April of each academic year, the Vice President Academic will prepare and share with the President a summary report of each PAC’s annual report. Annual reports from committee chairs will be submitted to the President in May of each year. The report will document the activities of the committee over the past year (September to May), and identify priority issues and resolutions that were decided by the committee in addressing the issue(s), and whether or not the committee is satisfied with the outcome of those decisions. In June of each academic year, the President will present the report to the Board of Governors through the Academic Committee.