Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) recently announced that it has become the first private institution in Ontario to be granted the privilege of offering a professional health care degree.
Prior to the Post-Secondary Education Choice and Excellence Act of 2000, only publicly funded colleges/universities in Ontario could apply for degree-granting status; thus, CMCC's doctor of chiropractic diploma was not recognized by statute as a degree.* The Honourable Mary Anne Chambers, Minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities, granted consent to CMCC to offer the doctor of chiropractic degree following a rigorous evaluation process by the Post-Secondary Educational Quality Assurance Board, which was established in conjunction with the Act. The board's evaluation included a full organizational review, a program quality review, and two site visits to CMCC.
While in some ways a technical distinction, CMCC emphasizes that "degree-granting status is recognition of the quality of the college's doctor of chiropractic program. It sets the program within the hierarchy of education in Ontario as comparable to that of other primary contact health care professions, such as medicine, dentistry, and optometry."
CMCC anticipates that the ability to officially grant a chiropractic degree may have several additional benefits, including:
- facilitating credit acceptance for CMCC students applying to postgraduate university programs;
- enhancing the college's status within the educational community; and
- allowing for greater input by CMCC into the development of postsecondary educational policy in the province.
* Of course, the fact that CMCC can now grant the doctor of chiropractic degree is in no way a reflection on the college's prior educational status, or on the status of doctors of chiropractic in the province. CMCC opened in 1945 and is accredited through the Council on Chiropractic Education of Canada. Recognized worldwide for its contributions to chiropractic education and research, the college operates a network of teaching clinics throughout Toronto, Ontario. The CMCC Health Sciences Library houses the largest collection of chiropractic resources in Canada. In Ontario, chiropractic has been governed by statute since 1925; currently, the profession is regulated by the College of Chiropractors through the Chiropractic Act (1991), part of the Regulated Health Professions Act (RHPA).
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