The National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) in Canada has re-enacted a policy whereby students who have completed their degrees in Law by distance learning are given several onerous steps in order to ever accomplish their dream of practicing Law in Canada.  

These steps often mean that a graduate of a very challenging Bachelor of Law program by distance in a country such as England and any other outside of Canada may need to complete up to two Masters degrees at a Canadian university before they can submit an application for review by the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA).  Students  may be permitted to qualify to write the bar thereafter. 

In comparison, students who complete their program face to face outside of Canada will be permitted to write the bar exam after completing typically five Canadian law courses that are assigned by the NCA.  This means that students who complete their programs by distance are burdened by additional financial, time  and psychological challenges.  A typical Masters in Law degree will cost domestic Canadian students upwards of $30,000 per year.  If two of those degrees are required then that is an additional $60,000 that a distance student will now be required to pay.  International students will be required to pay even more.

The NCA touts the advantages of face to face learning which include less distractions and the ability to focus and stay motivated as well as the benefits of interaction that can occur in such settings. There is also a preference by the NCA for the Socratic Method, which is also called the question and answer teaching method. 

The graduates of distance learning programs have already proven their ability to remain motivated and focused despite possible distractions and challenges.  They have also honed their time management and further developed their technical skills.  Distance students remain interactive with teachers and other students through study groups and video-conferencing among other methods.  Their professors attend face to face trainings through organizations such as London Law Lectures and some students can attend additional classes in their countries of origin at approved training centres/centers all over the world.

Distance students also enjoy the additional benefit of flexible classes and access to a wider network of students, alumni and professors worldwide. As it relates to the Socratic Method, distance students do have opportunities for question and answer sessions with their professors and the ability to develop critical thinking skills.  However, they may not often have to encounter the disadvantages such as boredom  when a professor has an ongoing dialogue with an individual student or refuses to answer a direct question from a student.  Several taxonomies of learning, auditory, visual and kinesthetic, are targeted in distance learning.  The benefits of differentiated instruction are also very evident in distance learning programs. On demand, visually appealing lectures and various formats or the study guide are a staple of the distance learning programs.  As such, graduates of distance programs have a curriculum that is as academically challenging and intellectually stimulating as their face to face counterparts while overcoming many obstacles, including a very challenging grading system.

Each student who has completed their degree by distance understands the high level of discipline and commitment that is required to complete such a degree.  Often the students who complete their degrees by distance while residing in Canada have to undertake their program of studies without the tutelage offered to other students in other countries.  But once their program is completed the challenges seem to never end for that graduate.

The inequality in how distance learning students are treated was not always the case.  It is apparent that the change to these onerous requirements was enacted in 2015. The current NCA policies appear to be the most stringent that they have ever been in Canada.  Based on our research, a requirement for completion of up to two additional Masters degrees  is unheard of in most countries in the world.

The global pandemic has heightened/highlighted the need for online and distance learning at all levels.  This has been the means by which educational systems were able to continue to effect instruction in  a safe manner for students all over the world.  Even typically face to face programs are now being offered wholly or in part by distance learning. The NCA's unwillingness to recognize that distance learning students should not be treated as "lesser than" any other student reveals their unwillingness to modernize their systems.   The students that are affected often fall within racialized communities.

Please join us in requesting that the National Committee on Accreditation in Canada (NCA) will urgently remove the division and discriminatory practices as it relates to Law graduates that have completed their program of studies by distance versus face to face.  Thank you in advance for your time and for signing this petition.