The career college crossroad Founder of the Toronto Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology provides tips for selecting a private college

BY: Leroy Graham

For more than a decade, the Toronto Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology (TIPT) has been regarded as one of North America�s premier private career colleges. TIPT founder and current dean Dr. Alexander MacGregor speaks with Sway about Canada�s private career college system and gives tips to prospective students on finding the right school.

Many people believe that Canadian private career colleges don�t provide adequate instruction to students and are simply out to make money. What do you say to that?
There are bad schools out there. The reason that there are bad schools is because the system allows them to be bad. [Private career colleges] are not licensed, we are registered. There is a big difference between the two. Registration is a matter of compliance. You comply with certain set requirements before you can be reregistered. Licensing involves evaluation. So, to be licensed you have to be evaluated.

What are some of the things one should look out for as a prospective student of a private career college?
First of all, you want to assess whether or not the career college has a faculty. I am not referring to mere employees who teach � I am talking about a real faculty. A real faculty is a body of educators that are dedicated and engaged in some form of research in their field. Education is an evolving concept. The only way you can educate someone is if you are involved in some form of research yourself. That�s how we measure every academic institution out there. Go to Cambridge or Harvard and you will find the best people, the best faculty, the best researchers. It is crucial that you see that they do really have a faculty.

What is the real value of pursuing studies at a private career college?
You are the buyer in this instance, because you are going to pay money for it. You have the right to know what you�re buying. What you�re buying is not a diploma � it�s unfortunate that most people think like that. What you�re buying is the value-added education that comes from the faculty. Most people miss that point. If faculty doesn�t exist within your potential private career college then I wouldn�t go to that school, period. Most private career colleges have a business model where they bring in supply teachers or part-time teachers, who come to teach for a day or two. That�s fine, as long as there is a faculty base responsible for the content � a faculty committee or curriculum committee that reviews the curriculum to ensure it is current.

What else should students look for if considering studies at a private career college
Ask them to demonstrate the success of the program. To demonstrate the success of the program, they need to be able to, at least, give you verifiable profiles of six, seven or a dozen graduates who are successful in their field of study, who have worked and advanced in their industry. Those people will tell you how their training at a private career college has contributed to their success. You get a clear answer from them because these are people who no longer have any obligations to that school. They are independent and will tell you the truth. It�s up to the school to gather this kind of information and make it available.

Ultimately, it seems that alumni can be wonderful sources of information about private career colleges and assist prospective students in making post-secondary decisions.
Any school worth its salt should be able to demonstrate the existence of an alumni base that is functional, active and can support and validate the core mission of the institute. Without those elements, everything else is sales talk. The other thing you could do is look at government websites. The government publishes default rates and graduation rates for all private career colleges. Default means that students who have borrowed money, have failed to pay back their government loan. The government believes that�s an indirect measure of success. Do the research. The information is out there to help you make the right decision.

- Dr. Alexander MacGregor, PhD, DSc, is the president and current dean of faculty at the Toronto Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology (TIPT)