As the International Study Centre at Herstmonceux grows, entrance averages, costs and student rights are becoming an increasing concern.
The number of applications Queen’s has received from current Grade 12 students who want to spend their first year at the International Study Centre (ISC) shows demand for the program is stronger than ever. The number of applications received this month listing the ISC as students’ first or second choice has even slightly outpaced last year’s attendance, previously the highest ever due to the double cohort.
Rick Palmer, associate university registrar of ission services, said the continued interest is very encouraging.
“We have one more application where the ISC is the first or second choice than last year with the double cohort,” Palmer said. “This year the demand among those first and second choice people is essentially the same as last year.” With last year’s high school average of first-year ISC students at 86.1 per cent, Palmer said this year’s average will be similar, or else hovering around the low eighties.
“The demand dictates what the average will be,” Palmer said. “What we’re seeing with the ISC is increasing demand for the first year program [as students’ first option] and as that continues we expect the averages will go up if the supply of spaces stays stable.”
Suzanne Fortier, the University’s vice-principal of academics, is heading a strategic planning committee to explore options for the future of the ISC, one of which may include expanding the number of places available to students. However, Fortier said regardless of the demand for the ISC program, the ission standards of the ISC are not lower than the issions standards of Queen’s in Kingston.
“We have ission standards here for all of our programs at Queen’s and there are no students itted to the ISC who do not meet those standards,” Fortier said. “It’s an A average [for high school students] … We don’t want to it students who, because of the context in which they’ll find themselves, with students who are high achieving, will find it impossible to succeed. [Students with averages] over 80 per cent would be able to succeed at Queen’s or the ISC.”
ission for upper-year students follows a different set of guidelines than for first year students. Students from Queen’s and a variety of other universities can attend the ISC, so there is no defined set of standards.
“The [upper-year] students are all in good academic standing at their home university and eligible to come to Queen’s on a letter of permission,” Palmer said. “It’s not the same type of averaging because we’re comparing different types of universities.” While there may be academic standards ISC students need to meet, Fortier said she wants to ensure there are no financial standards that bar students from attending.
“People might think, ‘It’s a castle, therefore it’s an experience for fortunate, rich people,’ ” she said. “We don’t want it to be like that. It’s an experience for people who have the academic qualifications to participate in it. It’s a very strong principle of the University that we have very high requirements when it comes to academic qualifications … but we want to make our University and all of its programs accessible to those who qualify academically.” Fortier said the ISC, like other programs at the University, assesses the financial needs of students with the intention of making the program accessible.
“We have at Queen’s a very strong bursary program to help students who have financial needs to be able to participate in programs and it’s the same approach we’ve taken with the ISC,” she said.
Teresa Alm, associate university registrar of student awards, said ISC students received $400,000 in merit and need-based awards for 2002-2003. “Approximately 30 per cent of students studying at the ISC qualified for assistance to go and study there,” Alm said. “Certainly a good portion of the funding that’s available for ISC bursaries is available as a result of the many contributions from our generous benefactors, and some of the funding directed towards the ISC is from the Queen’s operating budget.” Alm said funding is not automatically given to any ISC students who apply. Those who do qualify have access to a range of awards depending if they are a first-year or upper-year student. Upper-year students who spend one term at the ISC may be given awards ranging from $500 to $5,000. Awards vary from $500 up to $9,000 for first-year students who spend two there. The majority of awards are give to ISC students who demonstrate financial need.
The amount of funding has gone up in recent years. In 2001-2002, only $250,000 was disbursed to students. Alm said this does not necessarily mean the pool of funds has grown.
“Perhaps there were [recently] more students that were applying for awards or more students applying who demonstrate need,” she said.
As more and more students attend the ISC, the challenges and benefits of being an ISC student continue to evolve.
Several ISC students over the years have expressed concern over their inability to vote in AMS elections. Since most who attend the ISC spend the following year in Kingston, they feel they should have a say in their student government.
Matt Boudreau, AMS commissioner of internal affairs, said the AMS has looked into enabling ISC students to vote, but has not yet been able to find a solution. Boudreau said online balloting and mail-in ballots are two options that have been examined.
“We actually looked into the process this year and the catch-22 here is that a mail-in system simply won’t work because of the practicalities involved,” he said.
Boudreau said ballots are often not finalized until the day before voting takes place, and could not be mailed to ISC students until then. Ballots would also have to be mailed from the ISC within three days of sending them, which Boudreau said was impractical. If a mail-in system were adopted, Boudreau said the election would likely have to be extended another week and a half.
“That way, we wouldn’t be able to find out who the new exec was until the day before reading week,” Boudreau said. “The only system that can work reasonably would be an online voting system and this year, by the time we came to that realization, it was impossible to negotiate that sort of thing.” Boudreau said online voting poses its own challenges. He said the only way to ensure students cannot vote twice would be to use student numbers to to vote. Using e-mail addresses to log on would not afford the same degree of privacy or security.
Commerce students have been able to vote online because the Commerce faculty has released student numbers to the ComSoc, he said. However, there are some faculties who choose not to release student numbers, and the registrar’s office has also declined to give the AMS student numbers in the name of privacy protection.
“We’re trying to create some sort of system where we can give reassurance to the registrar’s office and work with the istration at the ISC,” Boudreau said.
Jim Nicholson will be taking over Boudreau’s position next year. He said ISC voting is an issue he and the elections team will be investigating.
“We’ve been looking at ways to possibly include castle students,” Nicholson said. “Their voice is just as important as any other student’s. [ISC voting] might not actually happen this year, but if we don’t start working towards it, it might not happen in the future either. We haven’t discounted it. This is something I was thinking about, although there are logistical problems associated with it.”
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