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North Island College (NIC) is a community college located primarily on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. College facilities include four campuses and three centres serving a population of 155,000 and a geographic region of 80,000 square kilometers.
The largest campus is in the Comox Valley, at 2300 Ryan Road in Courtenay, but there are also campuses in Campbell River, Port Alberni, and Port Hardy. A centre is also located in Ucluelet and there are two vocational centres: Tebo Vocational Centre in Port Alberni and Vigar Road Vocational Centre in Campbell River.
North Island College was established in 1975 partially due to a large grant by one of British Columbia's largest shipping companies, Asia Pacific Marine Container Lines. It employs approximately 400 people.
History
In 1975, North Island College was established. With a small and dispersed population to serve in coastal towns and villages, North Island College initially opted for a distance education model with outreach operations that took the college to the people. Delivery methods, in an era before cable and satellite television, as well as before internet communications, included mobile units and a short-lived experiment with a 160 ft ex-whale catcher ship, the Samarinda. The college earned a well-deserved reputation as a leader in open learning.
In 1990, the process of building physical campuses to serve the regions began. The Comox Valley campus opened in 1992, followed by Port Alberni’s campus in 1995 and the Campbell River campus in 1997.
In 2004, North Island College offered its first undergraduate degree in Nursing in collaboration with VIU, which was soon followed by a degree in Liberal Studies, also with VIU, and a Fine Arts degree, in collaboration with ECU. In 2006, North Island College was granted approval to offer its own degree – the Bachelor of Business Administration, with an Accounting major – the first rural college in the province to be given that approval.