The Academic Affairs Committee passed a recommendation last week to close the human resources specialist and human resources and industrial relations major at UTM.
According to the management department, because the human resources specialist program, which leads to a bachelor of commerce, has not served UTM students well and the labour market has changed. For these reasons, the specialist program is to close as of August 30, 2020.
Students that are already enrolled in the program will be able to complete it.
As for the human resources and industrial relations major offered by the Department of Economics, it is to be closed as of August 30, 2017.
Amy Mullin, UTM VP academics and dean, said that the number of students in the human resources program has been low.
The program closure is also a response to changes in the certification requirements for careers.
“The closure of the human resources specialist program will avoid redundancy in program offerings,” said professor Louis Florence, director of undergraduate programs for the Department of Management.
A newly approved human resource management and industrial relations stream of the management specialist program will be introduced instead in September. The HRMIR will lead to a bachelor of business administration.
The HRMIR is supposed to give students a better chance at meeting the professional certification of the Human Resource Professional Association.
The Human Resources specialist was “administratively suspended”—meaning it stopped accepting new students—on July 1, 2014, and the HRIR major program was suspended on August 30, 2012.
The Department of Economics supported the closure of the HR program, and the departments of management, history, and sociology supported the closure of the HRIR program. Notices about the program closures were sent to students at all three campuses.
The closure will not affect any other programs, including those in economics, nor the other optional courses offered for this program, such as sociology and history.
The other four specialist programs offered by the management department that also lead to a bachelor of commerce—commerce, finance, accounting, and marketing—will not be affected either.
The AAC meeting was also supposed to feature a visit from President Meric Gertler on his three priorities for U of T, but Gertler cancelled.
