PURPOSES AND GOALS

Selkirk College is required by statute to provide tuition in first and second year
university work and is authorized to offer such courses of a post-secondary-school
level as may be deemed desirable. The latter courses are generally in the fields of
business, industry and public service. The College differs from all secondary schools
and from other post-secondary educational institutions in terms of its educational
purposes, premises and facilities, staffs, students, curricula and instructional methods.

The College has two broad purposes. The first is to provide within a single educa-
tional milieu a variety of educational opportunities for students of different abilities,
talents and interests. The second is to extend more widely the opportunity for young
people throughout the Province to continue their education after graduation from
secondary school.

The first of these broad purposes implies much more than merely having both
academic and technical or other programmes carried out in the same institution. The
College should be regarded as a unique educational setting wherein academic and
technical fields can be merged in ways that are not open to other post-secondary
institutions whose programmes do not cover as wide a range of abilities and interests.
By adhering to this broad intention, the College can promote a distinctive type of
higher education that will not only offer exceptional educational opportunities for
the young people of the Province, but will also serve to counteract the false distinc-
tion that is commonly drawn between academic and technical education. In a
comprehensive sense all fields of education, whether literary, artistic, scientific or
applied have techniques for acquiring, communicating and utilizing knowledge.
Likewise, every field of education has its discursive and contemplative aspects as
expressed in its historical, social and aesthetic components. Within a college pro-
gramme these may be merged in ways that will enable students to comprehend their
fields of study not merely as academic or technical but as powerful social and
intellectual forces that are deeply and widely influential in human affairs.

This is a great educational opportunity and challenge for Selkirk College. Its
purpose is much more than that of merely filling a hitherto neglected gap in our
educational system. It is its responsibility to fashion a distinctive educational ap-
proach designed to meet the needs of modern life. To accomplish this goal will
demand an unrestricted educational outlook and the concerted effort of all members
of the College staff.

A further purpose of the College is to extend more widely throughout the Province
opportunities for young people to continue their education after graduation from
secondary school. This purpose is accomplished by the College: (a) being close to
the homes of the students who attend; (b) being less restrictive than other institu-
tions of higher education regarding the admission of students who graduate in the
various senior secondary-school programmes; (c) being relatively inexpensive to
attend; (d) providing various academic, technical and other programmes at the
post-secondary level.

A regional college bears a closer relationship to the community it serves than does
any other type of educational institution. For example, the educational services of a
university are so widely extended that its relationship to any particular locality is
much more tenuous than that of a college. Likewise, a college is more closely
associated with the community it serves than is a public school, because it stands

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