Business halted for applications to Langara’s Bachelor’s of Business Administration

By CAROLINE BASSO and BRICIA CORTES

Langara College will temporarily suspend admissions to the Bachelor of Business Administration program starting next January due to the excessively high number of students withdrawing from the program midway through.

The measure, which was voted on during a board meeting on Jan. 25, was necessary for the college to revise the program’s curriculum. Students who have already started the bachelor program will be able to complete it. Prospective students hoping to take the BBA program must enrol by Dec. 31, 2024.

Application suspension reasoning

“We found the vast majority are exiting after the two-year mark,” said the college’s provost Dr. Pouyan Mahboub, blaming the program’s “architecture.”

The upcoming changes to the program will be significant, Mahboub said.

Mahboub said while the changes were necessary, they needed to be completed quickly, so current Diploma students can complete their bachelor’s degree here without transferring to other post-secondary institutions.

He also said the suspension poses a small risk to the college’s image as current and prospective students will notice the program has been suspended.

“It’s a reputational risk,” he said at the meeting.

Business students and professors weigh in

Leonardo Vargas is a fourth-year BBA student who entered Langara intending to transfer to UBC. However, Vargas is now questioning his original plan.

“I’ve been reviewing my original plan because I’ve liked the attention given by the teachers here,” Vargas said.

Some instructors were worried about a possible loss of work.

Vanessa Barron, a Langara instructor in the Langara School of Management, said the faculty were involved in the new program development, but there are still some uncertainties around the upcoming process.

“What might happen with the enrollment will depend also on how long the pause is,” she said. “There might an impact on my course load.”

Barron said the changes are necessary and the department wants to improve some of the course learning outcomes.

“It is good to … make sure that our students are really employment ready,” she said.

Vargas said he hoped the revised program would boost student employment opportunities.

“We’ll have more students better qualified, and they will want to stay here longer,” he said. “I think if we improve the quality of the courses offered to students, the image of Langara can change.”