Thunder Bay – NEWS – Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities Minister Romano fully expects a continued partnership between NOSM, Lakehead and Laurentian, in Thunder Bay and Sudbury respectively.
“The only change occurring through the legislation is that NOSM will now be an equal partner to Lakehead and Laurentian as an institution with the authority to offer its own degrees under their own name and make its own governance and administrative decisions,” states the Minister in an email to NetNewsLedger.
“The Government of Ontario believes that the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) is critical to ensuring the availability of health human resources in Northern Ontario and that NOSM is ready to take the next step in the evolution to becoming an independent, degree granting post-secondary institution.”
The proposed legislation to make NOSM an independent university is a recognition of the fact that NOSM has an ongoing reputation of delivering high-quality degree programming. This legislation will allow NOSM to offer the same high-quality degrees they offer today, but now under their own name. This will also allow NOSM to become more agile and nimble to the changing environment for students as they help tackle the health human resource needs of Northern Ontario.
The decision to include NOSM in the red tape bill also furthers our government’s mandate to reduce burdensome regulations and red tape. It is important to note that NOSM already operates largely independently, and the Ministry already funds NOSM directly. In addition to championing the evolution of NOSM as a University, the proposed legislation will reduce duplicative and unnecessary administration and governance.
The evolution of an institution to a fully independent university is a process that has occurred many times in Ontario including at Lakehead University which institution began as a Technical Institute, then became a College before becoming the outstanding University they are today.
