Teaching Degrees

The aggregate-learning degree process described in this document applies to both 'on-campus' and 'external' students, and the context is generic degrees in Education. Our degrees originated in customary and statutory context. We collaborate in the quality concern and other academic organizations listed here. For our post-2004 BC degree context, see here. The university and member colleges also develop specially-structured programs, specifically accepted in a local jurisdiction (country, province, etc), or by a particular professional organization, for which the outcome degree is likewise awarded by the university. Examples include the BC Early Childhood Education programs conducted by BC Montesori Teachers College in Vancouver BC (and the Financial Practitioners programs conducted by CPPD-IFPAS, Singapore). Contact member colleges directly about programs approved in their particular jurisdictions.

Dear Educator / Caregiver / Administrator

You may be closer than you thought to achieving a relatively inexpensive and credible certificate or degree - undergraduate or graduate. An aggregation (or aggregate-learning) degree is basically an assembly and completion - a consolidation - of prior (and further, if needed) studies, along with credit for certain examinations, professional experience, field-based courses, etc. Tell us what you have accomplished with respect to components A-D below and your appropriate degree could possibly be concluded in weeks, or months - or years - depending upon your past studies, any required further work, and the clarity and comprehensiveness of your initial application. More learning and/or research may be needed, depending upon what scope and depth of learning you now further want to establish, and for what reason.

You may primarily only need to document your previous studies and professional work, and/or write completion equivalency examinations such as CLEP, PEP, DANTES, GRE, etc - or ours proctored in the office of a doctor, lawyer, minister or other nearby professional. With experiential prerequisite, it is even possible in our programs to earn a degree substantially by external examination - though usually most candidates have extensive past formal studies for credit transfer.

In our practice a particular degree or special mention may be structured ( 'constructed' ) to match a reasonable need - so long as the outcome is credible and substantial. If we are staff/affiliate equipped to address the subject matter, and/or further expertise is provided by a requesting entity (unaffiliated college, professional association, corporation, etc), we then determine the appropriate courses, examinations, research reports etc - to ensure a credible outcome. The 'construction' may include on-line courses along with those based in a campus, workplace, or field setting. Thus our long-standing public law and administration specialization was structured in response to initiatives from particular government offices and police departments. Throughout academia, the content of special mentions (majors) often substantially overlap - e.g., there may be no significant difference between programs identified as "law enforcement" as compared with "criminal justice", yet employment criteria might insist upon one rather than the other. In such cases, our flexibility is appropriate and helpful to deserving individuals and organizations.

If you are an Early Childhood Educator - Mainstream or Montessori - then you know that most degree-granting institutions tend to give somewhat skimpy recognition to ECE preparation. The courses you took are often downplayed - even though you likely studied the same Erikson, Montessori, Piaget, taught in degree-standing developmental psychology courses. We give your courses appropriate recognition, enhancing the Education - including Early Childhood - professional community.

This process is not primarily one of further study - although that may be involved. This is mostly about "assembling" and credentialing - by issuance of degree and formal transcript what you have already accomplished.

We have since considerably expanded the scope of the program to more widely serve the educational community. You may seek an ECE or other Education degree for a variety of reasons including personal satisfaction; as part of a display of credentials at the entrance to your school (along with table copies of the National Guide and ACE directory); as satisfaction of precondition in a funding or other application; as prerequisite to further studies; etc. Teacher and caregiver certification in various states and provinces is complicated, however. In some contexts our degree requirement may be considered inadequate - in others, excessive. By completing additional courses, practicums, or examinations as part of your credentialing you can match your degree to meet various licencing requirements.

In this present program:

1 year-equivalent in ABCDE merits the Certificate
2 year-equivalents in ABCDE merit the Associate
3 year-equivalents in ECE ABCDE merit Licentiate
4 year-equivalents in ABCDE merit the Bachelor
5 with dissertation the Master
6 without dissertation the Master

If there are gaps in your portfolio we will require that you take one or more make-up courses at a postsecondary program in your home community, or by distance learning, or by equivalency examinations. On-line and correspondence courses are available from various directories listed in section D below

C. Routine vocational courses - such as carpentry, nursing aide, etc - may be granted up to 50% transfer credit - if directly relevant to a degree application. An example would be special mention of vocational education in an appropriate Education degree. [The vocational category is not to be confused with technological courses discussed in the next paragraph].

D. You receive credit for all university or degree-standard courses (campus or distance - by correspondence, telecourses, email, etc) you have taken, or the equivalency examinations for any of them. Contact GRE 212-966-5853, CLEP 609-951-6106, and others, and ask about their block or course exams and test locations, if you need such. Degree-standard courses include a wide range of technological subjects - where the difference between them and "vocational" courses is the "logic" - analysis, prerequisite mathematics or conceptual preparation, etc. A wide range of "off-campus" classroom courses recommended by the American Council on Education are also granted degree-standing credit. On-line courses are available from various directories. First search TeleCampus, including free courses. See also Course-finder, the Globewide Network Academy (we joined GNA in its early days in 1993), and particularly the World Lecture Hall. For graduate courses, enter the word "graduate" in Search WLH.

Correspondence courses in developmental psychology are available from a number of universities including Athabasca (800-788-9041), Louisiana State [least expensive] (800-234-5046), Washington [senior level] (800-543-2320), and Wisconsin (800-442-6460), and others. We also - particularly for elementary and secondary teachers - suggest you consider a Minnesota course in comparative education.

E. If you lack one or more A-D components, and none of the above external examinations exactly cover a gap for you, we can arrange for proctored examination of course-equivalents or years-equivalent of learning. Our external examination is proctored in the office of a professional person near to you - such as doctor, lawyer, vetinarian, minister - sent and returned directly and with a committment that the examination was completed with integrity.

Vancouver University Colleges has conducted its Commonwealth customarily-designated degree programs since 1983 - and the American-originating associate since 1970. Vancouver University Colleges is tax exempt in both Canada (Revenue Canada) and the USA (IRS). Our Early Childhood Education - including Montessori primary credentialing - is fully authorized by the Government of British Columbia for professional licencing - and is widely accepted outside Canada. Elementary and other Education graduates - Montessori and mainstream - have been hired by schools in Alberta, British Columbia, Washington State, and around the world. Whetham College, oldest constituent of VUW, was chartered by the BC Legislature in 1896.

VUW constituent, affiliate and other collaborating institutions - in various locations in Canada, the United States, and other countries - were long listed in the official Federal Government of Canada CHRD's National Guide to College and University Programmes. Until May 2002, all applicants registering as a degree candidate received a copy of the National Guide - and thus copies are located at households and libraries around the world. [The Guide is no longer published, officially because of the expense but more because a provincial government objected that its publication intruded upon provincial jurisdiction].

Because of their transnational scope, various affiliated VUW programs are subject to various national, provincial, state and other laws, including acceptance under s.54(3) of the Alberta Universities Act in university context. In Canada it is government, and the judicial mediation of academic freedom and custom, which maintains the credibility of universities - not the American system of accreditation (see further below in this document).

On-campus students at VUW have included aboriginals admitted with adult basic education equivalency, and an Australian Consul General who studied intensive Japanese with us and has since been a member of our Board of Governors throughout the decade. Our ECE and Montessori Elementary Education graduates - whether by campus course or externally credentialed - have secured work in many countries as teachers, caregivers, facility directors, public officials, a TV news anchor, and in many others career positions.

Graduates able to attend Convocations receive their degree parchment bestowed by a guest of honour. These have included former BC premiers Mike Harcourt and Rita Johnston and other similarly distinguished persons. VUW was proud runner-up in the American Association of University Administrators' l997 Khaladjan Award competition for innovation in higher education - winner of which was the University of the State of New York. In its notice to VUW, the AAUA letter says that "The judges admired the [VUCW] collaborative, experiential model of higher education..."

We could also be recognized - critically or positively - for our conservatism in certain aspects of academic custom. For example, in the past decade we bestowed only four honorary doctorates, including Canada's first woman Premier and two long-serving board chairpersons. In degree credentialing component B, we are cautious with respect to credit for life-experience portfolios, while generous with transfer credit for outcome-measured experiential learning and proctored examinations. [And while a snazzy new downtown Vancouver BC public institute of technology facility has no library, we will keep and expand ours - donations of e-books particularly welcomed!].

We particularly welcome external degree applications in topics which bridge such subjects as anthropology, neurology and psychology, Montessori, multimedia, sociology, and other aspects of pedagogy.

VUW gives full academic transfer credit to nature study field courses, workshops, etc conducted by member colleges and recommended institutes. Such field courses etc count towards our aggregate-learning BREL degrees. A wide selection of such courses is offered by:

Application Form (print-out and mail)