New Canadian online University

Meritus University, located in New Brunswick, Canada, has just joined the distance education realm.

Fees: undergrad: $275/Credit Hour
Fees: graduate : $600/Credit Hour (just a little crazy)

What programs do they offer?
Undergrad: BBA & BITM (Bachelor of Information Technology Mgmt)
Graduate: MBA (Global Mgmt; Health Care Mgmt; HRM; Technology Mgmt & Marketing - The MBA in Tech Mgmt requires 48 hours for a total of $28800 in tuition...)

Accredited you ask?
"Following review of program proposals by the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission, Meritus University has received approval to offer its first three programs from the New Brunswick Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, thereby establishing degree-granting status."

Looks interesting enough - though too pricey for this che...er..fiscally responsible individual

 

1) It's not that I'm having BAD thoughts, it's just that there's soooo many MBA programs already.

2) Does this mean that the MBA degree is the easiest degree for a start-up? There are so many schools that offer just a few degrees and it sometimes seems that an MBA is always one of them.

3) Also, this whole New Brunswick Department of stuff and other stuff and more stuff . . . is this the agency that awards accreditation in Canada or is this some junior version of "full" accreditation?

 

In Canada, degree granting authority comes from the Minister of education of each province. So yes, these online schools have their authority based on their New Brunswick charted designation as Universities. However, they are not members of the AUCC so for practical purposes their degrees are not accredited but legal. In addition, most employers in Canada are familiar with Canadian Universities as we don't have too many so a degree from Meritus University will hardly sell in an economy saturated with better MBAs.

On the other hand, the main market of these schools is towards International Students that won't use their degrees in Canada or they might want it only for immigration purposes. For the latter reason, it might work because of their legal status in Canada.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Apparently the Province of New Brunswick has some pretty lax law when it comes to "universities". I guess this new school has degree-granting power, but the real standard of accredited education comes with membership in the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

The only New Brunswick universities that are on the list are as follows:

Université de Moncton
Mount Allison University
University of New Brunswick
St. Thomas University

There you go. I would disregard these "universities" from New Brunswick. I have come across a few resumes from these schools and they went straight into the garbage.

 

Surely you jest?

Wait - you would disregard Mount A, UNB and the others? If that is the case, you sir, are a fool. All four of those are very respected institutions. Mount A, for example, has been rated among the top 2 by MacLean's for 17 years. UNB is the only LLB degree granting University in New Brunswick. As a side note, I have taken courses from Mount A and many good friends have graduated from there (CS people and engineering folks).

If you discarded individuals from those universities, you have done your company a great disservice and disrespected the individuals who graduated from there.

 

By "these universities" I think Scott meant "online universities".

Online schools are not new in the Canadian market, I remember when Devry (another online school) tried in Toronto for few years. They were never able to get enough enrollment to continue. The Canadian market is tough mainly because government based institutions have low tuition fees.
The main market of these online schools is foreign students that don't know better, in the Montreal area there are few private colleges with online programs that do very well due to international students. Unfortunately, most of the international students find out about their mistake only after they graduate. The main strength of these online programs offered by private schools is aggressive marketing in some countries including China, India and other Asian countries. In the province of Quebec, you don't need a license to open a "college" as long as you don't offer any degree program, this has opened the doors to many over night online operations including Canada College (http://www.collegecanada.com/) that attract many international students mainly because of their ignorance.

 

The University of New Brunswick was the first post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada to be granted a separate faculty for computer science; previously it was under the faculty of engineering.

University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University essentially share the same campus with St. Thomas University at the top of the hill serving primarily as a liberal arts school. Students at either university can take courses from the other university without the typical transfer hassles. I studied computer science for 1 year at UNB before moving to Ontario. Very nicely landscaped campus except in the winter when the all uphill/downhill sidewalks are sheets of ice.

Université de Moncton is the flagship French-language university in New Brunswick with campuses across northern New Brunswick. I studied French immersion the summer after graduating from high school. Very large campus with a lot of greenspace.

As for Mount Allison University my only knowledge of this school comes from a week there with a church youth group. Small campus but very nice.

Circular filing resumes from applicants who graduated from any of these schools seems bizarre. You do realize many of the premiers of the Atlantic Canada provinces graduated from these institutions, don't you?

 

Low tuition fees? Maybe compared to many brick-and-mortar US universities. Colleges tend to have more reasonable tuition compared to the universities but in the last decade tuition fees have steadily risen. Some post-secondary institutions in Canada have been authorized by the government to set tuition rates at levels the market will bear depending upon the degree. The truly private colleges in Canada, I am referring to career colleges, generally set their tuition fees at the maximum amount the government is willing to pay for retraining programmes because most of the students are on unemployment benefits and receive "free" retraining in addition to their normal unemployment benefits.

I remember when DeVry opened a campus in the Toronto area. Their fees were quite a bit higher than traditional universities. They did offer several interesting programmes at the time.

 

Sorry, should have made it more clear... I only regard the Université de Moncton, Mount Allison University, University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University as the legitimate universities.

I should have said I disregard these "online universities" that are not on the AUCC list.

 

Thanks for clarifying that Scott,

It seemed out of character for you to post something as damaging as that! These are great schools in their location, smaller populous and proximity to their market and still they produce a great curriculum.

 

Here's a truly excellent website that lists all the higher education institutions (community-colleges and degree-grantors) in Canada. You can search by province (or territory) or by type of school, AUCC membership etc. Listings include links to the schools, information on degrees offered, links to enabling legislation etc.

http://www.cicic.ca/664/post-sec.aspx?sortcode=2.16.22&s=1

It generates a list of 14 schools for New Brunswick:

1. Atlantic Baptist University
P.O. Box 6004
Moncton * NB * E1C 9L7 * Canada

2. Bethany Bible College
26 Western Street
Sussex * NB * E4E 1E6 * Canada

3. Lansbridge University - New Brunswisk
415 King Street, 2nd Floor
Fredericton * NB * E3B 1E5 * Canada

4. Maritime College of Forest Technology
1350 Regent Street
Fredericton * NB * E3C 2G6 * Canada

5. Meritus University
301-30 Knowledge Park Drive
Fredericton * NB * E3C 2R2 * Canada

6. Mount Allison University [AUCC]
65 York Street
Sackville * NB * E4L 1E4 * Canada

7. New Brunswick Bible Institute
2335 Route 103
Victoria Corner * NB * E7P 1C7 * Canada

8. New Brunswick Community College [ACCC]
6 Arran Street
Campellton * NB * E3N 1K4 * Canada

9. St. Stephen's University
8 Main Street
St. Stephen * NB * E3L 3E2 * Canada

10. St. Thomas University [AUCC]
51 Dineen Drive
Fredericton * NB * E3B 5G3 * Canada

11. Université de Moncton [AUCC][LC]
165, avenue Massey
Moncton * NB * E1A 3E9 * Canada

12. University of Fredericton
371 Queen St, Suite 101
Fredericton * NB * E3B 1B1 * Canada

13. University of New Brunswick [AUCC][CVU][LC]
P.O. Box 4400
Fredericton * NB * E3B 5A3 * Canada

14. Yorkville University
1149 Smythe Street
Fredericton * NB * E3B 3H4 * Canada

 

Out of these, at least the following are online schools:
Meritus University
Lansbridge University
Yorkville University

Yorkville and Lansbridge seem to belong to the same owner. The name "Yorkville" is misleading as there is a legitimate highly ranked school called "York" in Ontario.

 

Thanks for the clarification

 

Isn't Yorkville one of Toronto's tonier shopping districts? What's it doing in NB?

 

You're right...WAY too expensive with so many other online options out there. I'm not sure this or any other Canadian university has a lot of name recognition outside of Canada. Might be a good option for Canadian students, but I think there are even cheaper options there than this program.

 

Indeed, I don't believe many Canuck Universities enjoy a high reputation outside of our borders though some are gaining more recognition. I agree, there are many other choices from which to get an MBA and many US universities are $1,000's cheaper than this unheard of place.

 

Yes, but few problems with US Universities for Canadian Students. First, you cannot claim their tuition fees in your income tax unless you live close to the US border and take courses in a school that is close to you (This makes them at least 40% more expensive depending on your income). Second, given the saturated market of MBAs in the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver area, unless your degree is from Harvard or Stanford, you are going to have a hard time selling an unknown American University. I know of people that paid 50K for their MBA from the UoT and are not having an easy time in the job market so I don't see how a person with a degree from an online American School can do any better.

 

The Shanghai rankings identify the U. of Toronto as the best Canadian university, putting it at an impressive #24 in the world, ahead of some pretty tony schools like Duke. UBC does very well too, coming in at #36, ahead of several University of Californias, Rutgers, Israel's Hebrew University and USC (which does have a better football team). Both of them are ranked higher than any French university. So the leading Canadian universities do seem to move in pretty good company. Moving down the list a ways, the U. of Calgary is in the 150-200 bracket, along with the U. of Miami, Seoul National U., England's Leicester and the U. of Hong Kong, the highest ranked Chinese university. Moving futher down the list, Simon Fraser is in the 300-400 range along with SA's Witwatersrand. All in all, 22 Canadian universities made the world's top 500 list, which isn't a bad showing.

 

Bill Dayson,

Excellent post, you truly understand global perspectives on education. I personally wouldn't mind have the joint Queens/Cornell MBA on my resume! Then there is the U Western Ont. EMBA not to mention several others from Canada. In addition, having an under graduate degree from Canada's top school and something from an international source, the UK, etc. looks very good too. From a Canadian perspective, the top 20 schools in the US far well. Below that, not so sure. Rankings are a subjective way to class schools but they are useful for perception purposes. Again, my personal take is that education only amounts to 10% of the formula when it comes to private sector jobs opportunities. Good post.