Transition Year Program History

In 1968/69, Nova Scotian minority group leaders and the Dalhousie Association of Graduate Students urged all regional institutions of higher learning to support the efforts of Black and Aboriginal students to obtain a university education. Dalhousie University responded to their challenge by establishing a committee to consider the creation of a transition year program.

In its 1969 Report to the Faculty of Arts and Science, this committee confirmed that there were very few Black or Native persons from Nova Scotia with a university degree. The report cited economic disadvantage and a "long history of discrimination and social injustice directed against both these peoples" and the "special need for university-trained people in this segment of the population." In conclusion, the committee recommended the establishment of a transition year program. The committee set two long-term goals for the program: the further development of leadership and self-help capacity within these communities, and the alleviation of poverty through education.

Dalhousie's Transition Year Program (TYP) opened its doors in 1970. A contemporary Faculty report described it as "a project totally new ... to all of Canada, ...an attempt, daring yet modest, to respond to a social and educational responsibility." Because the program was clearly navigating uncharted waters, it remained classified as a pilot project until 1982. In the early 1980s, the University conducted a review of the TYP and concluded that the program should no longer be considered a pilot project. Consequently, it was upgraded and given the status of a department within the Faculty of Arts and Science (FASS).

In 1985, the Transition Year Program advised the Senate Academic Planning Committee that the Program's "mandate is to facilitate and increase the participation of Black and Native students in post-secondary education." For over two decades the mandate of the Program remained unchanged: to increase the disproportionately low enrolment of Black and Aboriginal students in Canadian universities.

In 1989, a presidential task force, Breaking Barriers, recommended that the TYP become part of Henson College, now the College of Continuing Eduication, at Dalhousie University. The task force also recommended that the TYP be given a further ten-year mandate. Dr. Howard Clark, then Dalhousie's president, accepted these and other recommendations and the Transition Year Program joined Henson College in July 1990. In 2000, Dalhousie University provided a further five year funding committment to TYP.

The Program's purpose remains essentially unchanged. It introduces its students to the university world, prepares them for admission to regular programs and helps them financially and academically as they progress toward a first degree.

The Program's recent graduates are enroled in widely varied undergraduate programs. Earlier TYP graduates have obtained bachelor's degrees at Dalhousie and other Canadian universities -- in arts, science, commerce, education, social work, law and physical education. Several TYP alumni have already earned master's degrees, while others continue to pursue advanced study. TYP alumni have successfully competed for managerial positions, founded their own businesses and have been selected to represent Canada abroad. Many have brought the benefits of university education to their communities, where they have served as federal human rights officers, RCMP officers, teachers, federal outreach program counsellors, lawyers, policy analysts for the Assembly of First Nations, parole officers for the John Howard Society, training officers and education counsellors for the Department of Indian Affairs, members of the National Assembly of Chiefs as well as band counsellors, managers and chiefs.