May 27, 2020

Medicine Hat College (MHC) is preparing to welcome students back to school this fall through a combination of face-to-face and online or remote learning. Contingency plans also include staggered access to the campus for lab work and practicum-intensive courses and programs.

“MHC will be ready to teach and deliver all of our courses and programs for the fall semester. Our strategic re-entry planning involves several taskforce teams to ensure that we continue to uphold the highest standards of academic quality, applied learning and tangible graduate outcomes, says Dr. Vicky Roy, vice-president academic and provost at MHC.

“We applied and improved the lessons learned from our emergency transition to remote delivery last March to ensure the best possible learning experience for all our students for this coming fall.”

To allow the maintenance of appropriate physical distancing, MHC will limit the number of students on campus at any one time. Safety measures, such as limits on the size of gatherings, and public health guidelines will be observed, and the college will continue to follow public health protocols and provincial directives to protect people's health and safety.

“Combining different delivery methods means students enrolled in a program with a higher level of lab components that require face-to-face learning can safely have them. Some other programs would be mainly taught by distance. Our faculty are now making recommendations on course offerings that reflect this approach,” explains Roy.

Specifics as to which components of which courses will be in person or online will be available by the end of June.

Roy expresses her gratitude to the students, faculty and staff at MHC for their resilience and patience while navigating these challenging times.

“I’d like to thank our faculty for the incredible efforts required to adapt their courses to provide learning opportunities to students, ensuring that our fall semester courses will continue to be as rigorous, innovative, engaging, and meet high quality learning standards. Thank you to all staff for pulling together all of the pieces behind the scenes that keep our college community safe, healthy and running.”

“Finally, a big thank you to the students for showing their commitment to learning and capacity to adapt to a new learning environment. We can’t wait to see you again and are working hard to welcome you back to Medicine Hat College.”