An interview with Maureen Piercy, V-P Academic, Loyalist College

Q. What are some of the most popular programs at Loyalist College?

A. We are pleased to be observing a provincial trend of increased applications to our college. Some of our most popular programs include our media programs -- they attract a number of students from outside the immediate area. Also popular are our human studies programs, which include things like ECE (Early Childhood Education) and social services, and our health sciences programs.

Our business and technology programs are also ready to go for the fall, so we're very pleased with that.


Q. What kind of practical experience can a Loyalist student get?

A. Most of our programs have internship or placement opportunities built into the program, so students have a chance to work at a business or a health science facility. We have also been very pleased with our graduate placement rate. Last year it was the highest in the province at 94%.


Q. What kind of career guidance is available to Loyalist students?

A. That's a big concern for a lot of students. We try to provide high quality information before the students even come here. We have a strong liaison program where we work with students throughout the province, and those in the surrounding secondary schools.

We also have an excellent career counselling centre. If students feel they haven't made a good match with their program, they can help redirect them to a program that's a better choice.


Q. What are you most proud of at Loyalist?

A. We're very proud of the quality of the programs. Also, 97% of our graduates say they would recommend Loyalist College to a friend or family member. Student satisfaction is high and we're pleased with that.

Many of the faculty here have won numerous awards. The Pioneer, our print journalism product, has also won many awards.


Q. I understand you've recently constructed a brand new commons facility?

A. Yes. Last fall we opened an 11,000-sq.-ft. residence commons facility. It's a chalet style facility, and a very relaxing area for students. There's a fireplace, a computer lab, a pool table, meeting rooms for students. We're trying to develop a little village with facilities to create more of a community feel.

Also, right now we have two residence towers currently housing students from outside the area, and those towers accommodate 284 students. We will be increasing residence capacity to 496 when we open two new towers in the fall.


Q. What's down the road for the school?

A. We have strong new programs in the biosciences and environmental area, which is very exciting. Those are programs that began a year ago.

Photo, Chris Wattie, Loyalist Mac Lab

We also have a three-year television specialist program that's unique in the province, as well as an excellent photojournalism program that is the only one in the province.

Our media school is very innovative and advanced, and we're doing a lot of work in Web streaming.

Our business program has recently initiated a great partnership in which we receive $1 million worth of computer hardware and software, which will allow students greater exposure to our enterprise resource management program.

We have a collaboration with Brock University in St. Catharines. It's a four-year degree program in nursing science, where students spend their first two years at Loyalist, and their last two at Brock.

For our Superbuild project, we're renovating our library to make it more high tech, and adding more learning space to accommodate additional students.

We also have two proposals in to the government for new applied degree programs, one for human services management, and the other for CAD management.

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