College expands to fit growing student body
(CNS): Officials from the International College of the Cayman Islands have said enrolment for 2010/11 academic year is expectedto be the college’s largest class of students since it opened its doors to provide further education for working adults with evening degree programmes. The number of students attending the International College has grown over the last three years to the point that it has used all of its classrooms in its existing two buildings and the college now has plans to construct a new business building which will start in the fall.
Demand for more business classes is expected to continue to rise steadily over the next year, particularly for accounting and finance courses, said Dean Scott Cummings (above). “We have done everything we can to maximise our space, from using classrooms back-to-back for our evening courses to cannibalising our bigger faculty offices into classrooms,” Cummings said. “We have simply run out of space. It is a good problem to have.”
The new building is expected to open early next year and the classrooms will be fitted out with best practice teaching tools such as a smart board, projector and a laptop. The Cayman Islands Professional Society of Professional Accountants is sponsoring one of the classrooms in the new building and the college says it is reaching out to other companies and associations to fit out the second classroom and to help fund the construction of the building.
The new business building will enable the college to increase its course offerings and still maintain its low instructor-student ratio.
“The age range for our students is very broad,” Cummings said. “Our students range from teenagers out of high school all the way to adults in their 50s; so most of them are juggling work, family responsibilities, going to school at night and are squeezing in time to study whenever they can. We have found that our working students really benefit from our smaller classes so that instructors can give more contact time to each student and help them really understand the material.”
The International College offers a range of degrees in business, liberal arts and education, but with the rise of the offshore financial and tourism industries, it has increased its focus on its business programmes with concentrations on accounting and finance. The majority of the students are enrolled in a business programme at the associate, bachelors or master degree level.
The new business building is the next step in the evolution of the college explained the president of the college, John Cummings, Ph.D.
“Over the long run, we want to build three more buildings, which will house more classrooms, meeting areas and a new library that will not only be used by the students and faculty, but will also service the Savannah-Newlands community,” he added.
The college is also celebrating its 40th anniversary in September with celebrations taking place over the weekend of 24-26 September. “We are excited about inviting everyone – students, alumni, their families, the business community and the general public – to come view the site for the new building during our open house celebrations for our 40th anniversary,” said Dr. Cummings. “This is an inclusive, momentous event. Over the course of 40 years, we have had more than 1200 graduates and many of them have gone on to become leaders in the private sector and government and we want to celebrate that legacy.”
Incoming students this fall are a mixture of working students and recent high school graduates, said the Director of Admissions Anita Fausett-Khan.
“With the economic downturn and increasing pressure to stay competitive in a regional and international level, more people are going back to college to get their associate’s or bachelors degree,” said Khan. “If they already have their bachelor degree, then they are coming back to do their MBA or another one of our master programmes. Khan says the evening programme and international accreditation are both powerful motivators in attracting new students.
The International College has been accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools in the United States for over 30 years, and is evaluated and reassessed approximately every three to five years. Accreditation by an international accrediting body is an important part of its educational programme, especially since it has students from 24 countries. An evaluation team will be doing an onsite evaluation in February 2011 to renew its accreditation for 2012.
The International College of the Cayman Islands is a non-profit, private institution of higher education, offering associates, bachelors and masters degrees in business, liberal arts and education. Although a small private institution, the ICCI receives a small contribution from government which was $70,000 for this year according to budget documents.
Category: Local News
I hate to be a spoilsport but the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and School accredits the operations of companies such as ITT Technical. Name any traditional college you can think of in the US, and you will find that it is not on the ACICS list. There must be a reason for that. A big issue is the fact that the Council is run by executives of some of the for-profit schools it accredits (see Wikipedia.) That said I hope that ICCI’s students receive the benefits they deserve for their work.
Can you explain this a bit more? Are you saying that ACICS is not a good accreditation council? That ICCI students risk not being accepted into the larger traditional schools in the USA? That their degree will not have any say in the international playing field?
Please note, I’m trying to bash your comment, I’m honestly trying to understand why you made that post. If you answer yes to the above questions, then I have to be worried.
ACICS is recognized by both the United States Department of Education (http://www.ed.gov) and by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (http://www.chea.org) as a recognized accrediting agency. I am not sure why an anonymous poster relying apparently on wikipedia would make such a statement. You can go to the websites of both the United States Department of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (which is the organization that accredits the accredititng agencies) and find ACICS listed as a recognized agency. ACICS’ mandate is for professional schools and you can review their site at http://www.acics.org.