With everything from radio to bus ads revealing the schools’ competition for students, the presidents of Sudbury’s post-secondary institutions also regularly meet for lunch.
They do that because their institutions have a symbiotic relationship, sharing resources and students often transferring between schools as they complete their education.
“I think we're stronger together,” said Cambrian College president Kristine Morrissey, who calls Sudbury the “education hub of the North.”
“If we can attract students to Sudbury, we all win, and our community wins. We also are part of a Study North initiative with a number of other northern colleges, where our main goal is just to attract people to the North.”
Collège Boréal president Daniel Giroux said having four-post-secondary institutions in one city collaborating is “actually very unique.”
At the same time, they’re separate schools, and “obviously there's going to be some different strategies used to recruit at our institutions, and that's healthy,” he said. “It forces us to innovate and continue to grow and develop new programs.”
Morrissey and Giroux, along with Laurentian University president Lynn Wells and NOSM University president Dr. Michael Green, signed a memorandum of understanding between the four Sudbury post-secondary institutions Jan. 14.
Press materials say the MOU will focus on collaborations in student pathways, promotional efforts, collaborative research and shared services.
The administrators were taking part in a post-secondary panel hosted by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce.
They highlighted some areas of collaboration already in place.
That includes a new environmental solutions bachelor’s program to be offered by Cambrian and Laurentian and the cross-appointment of faculty at Laurentian and NOSM University (which, of course, was part of LU until a few years ago).
A medical simulation lab at Collège Boréal’s Kapuskasing campus is also being used by NOSM University students.
Wells explained that while there’s “nothing binding” about an MOU, it’s a “public expression of the great relationship that already exists among our four institutions,” who already have many articulation agreements in place to ease student pathways.
“We collaborate every day,” Wells said. “We always are looking for ways to support students with new pathways or to help each other out with research or to share industry knowledge.
“We do this all the time. We thought it was a great news story to share with the world that we have four institutions in Sudbury who are working together for the benefit of the community and the students here.”
Students can “start at Cambrian and finish up Laurentian, they can start at Laurentian and finish at Boréal, start at Cambrian, get into NOSM,” Morrissey added. “There's lots of pathways.”
Highlighting issues such as the ongoing provincial ban on tuition fee increases, it’s a challenging time in the sector, said Wells.
“Having such wonderful colleagues that can pick up the phone and talk to any of these three people and help each other out with problems, it's been a really great pleasure,” she said.
Other topics tackled by the panel included the retention of students in Northern Ontario, pathways to employment, the use of AI and accommodating Francophone and Indigenous students.
The panel was moderated by Vale general manager of Indigenous and community relations Mark Prystupa.
Green gave an update on NOSM University’s efforts to train homegrown Northern Ontario doctors, saying that overall, about half of undergraduate medical students remain long-term in the North to practice.
But if a new doctor does both their education and residency at NOSM University, that number increases to about 90 per cent.
And although it has been five years since Laurentian University declared insolvency, Wells brought up the topic in her introduction, saying her top priority is to change the narrative after “a couple of difficult years.”
“I see my main job as being the person who's changing the story,” she said. “When people say, ‘We don't want to be another Laurentian’ — we're getting really tired of that. We want Laurentian to be a word that means success, and a long-term success.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.