By all means, accept your offer, we are here to assure you get the education you want/need. Much of our material will be online this fall to allow safe delivery of programs. We will be ready to serve you, while maintaining social distancing and appropriate protocols. If any plans change for your program, we will contact you as soon as the change happens. All changes at Northern are always for the better!

We are so happy to have you! We have a plan in place for each program and how it will be delivered this fall. In some cases, the program plan has been reorganized, this will not affect what you learn, simply when you will learn it. We will have a communication out to each student in each program detailing what the fall semester will look like. Look for this communication mid-August. Your myNorthern portal is the best source of up to date information.

For international students, please pay your tuition fee by the due date on your offer letter and upload your visa approval through International OCAS (where you submit your application) to reserve your seat. Any delay in uploading your study visa at the international OCAS portal may cause a loss of your seat.

The College is a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) organization and practices a considerable amount of online and hybrid learning contributing to ideal skill sets upon graduation. For the Fall of 2020, the College has shifted to nearly all online program delivery so that students can study from home. If you are uncomfortable with learning online, please talk to a Program Coordinator and Student Advisor with the College about any issues, strategies for success and ‘best practice’ techniques to help you succeed. If you decide to withdraw from a program, you may not be able to get your deposit money back as we have saved a seat for you and have planned for you to study with us for this term. Studying in your program at a later date (deferrals) are limited but may sometimes be granted. Please ask your Student Advisor for more information to further support you.

Northern College is following the directions of our public health agencies and the Ministry’s directives. We have established safe distances and have protocols posted to help guide people who use our facilities, to do so safely. The health and safety of our students and our staff are important and we will not take risks. Look for further updates on this page as to the safety measures in place, as we phase in reopening of our campuses

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Northern College was already a world leader in college online learning, winning national and international awards for our online practices and receiving accreditation accolades. Northern support staff and faculty will be so happy to help and support you anyway we can, while you choose to study remotely.

Faculty members will be linked to you through technology, the information you study will be current, and resources will be linked to our learning platforms. Where possible, live simulations and interactive web streamed classes will be used. In addition, these are recorded so you can view them later on, if necessary.

Assignments will be designed to be completed on your own. All our student services and supports will continue to be offered online, and we are introducing more resources to support mental health and wellbeing. You can study from your home community.

International students must have a valid study permit in order to start the online courses.

We have plans for hands-on parts of every program. These plans are specially designed to meet each program need. Our faculty will explain how this will work for your program. It may mean that you do more hands on components later in the semester, or have more workspace, or see more frequent equipment cleaning than usual. It could mean you will be involved in simulation activities or other innovative ways our faculty have identified to have you meet the learning outcomes you need to meet.

We are very happy to have you join us, and urge you to come and start your program in Canada as planned. There may be travel advisories from your home country as well as travel advisories/restrictions for international travelers to Canada.

Please find the most up-to date policies for traveling to Canada for your studies with us at https://www.northernc.on.ca/message-international.

You can find more updates at:
canada.ca/coronavirus
IRCC COVID19
IRCC Twitter

For international students, Northern College follows all guidelines and rules from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). They have recently ruled that international students can begin their studies online in their home countries. You do not have to travel to Canada.To begin your studies online in your home countries, you will still need a valid visa and have your fees paid.

IRCC states: ”If your in-class courses are being moved to an online-only format because of COVID-19, your eligibility for the Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) Program won’t be affected. This includes students who have a study permit or who have been approved for a study permit for a program starting in May or June but who are unable to travel to Canada at this time due to travel restrictions. International students in this situation may begin their classes while outside Canada and may complete up to 50% of their program while outside Canada if they cannot travel to Canada sooner.”

International students with any questions or concerns are to contact Northern College’s International Manager, Edna Zhang, international@northern.on.ca

Residence will be open with social-distancing measures and mandatory vaccination in place.

In the event that Residence must close, as it did in March 2020, unused time in residence shall be fully refunded.

School boards have assured the college that all final grades will be sent to our Admissions Office at the end of June, the same timeline as per usual.

All students will be presented with a graded mark in assisting Admissions with their assessment, no submissions of Pass or Fail will be sent by the school boards. School Boards have also assured the college that marks as of the time students’ studies changed to remote study at home would not be lower than the mark at that time, however, those marks could still increase with students doing their required assignments till the end of the school year.

For International students: The college can consider conditional offer letters to you and process the applications in a case by case situation. Please submit your application through OCAS – International as soon as possible to ensure we will have enough time to process your application, you will have a reserved seat and you will get your study permit in time.

The provincial government is expanding the amounts available to qualifying applicants.

You can call Northern College Admissions 705-235-7222 which is being checked daily, but due to working remotely from our homes it is ideal to email admissions@northern.on.ca as our team has instant access to email.

International students, please send email to international@northern.on.ca.

• Suspended all face-to-face classes except in cases with essential on-site delivery. Transitioned to remote learning.
• Enacting academic contingency plans, effective immediately.
• Closed campuses to all visitors
• Increased the number of hygiene stations at all college entrances and common areas on campus.
• Implemented an awareness campaign to encourage our community to make hygiene and preventative behaviours a priority.
• Enhanced cleaning protocols across all campus locations.
• Restricted out-of-country travel for students and employees on college business.
• Established a COVID-19 Response Team that meets daily to pre-plan prevention initiatives and monitor local, national and international developments. All food that is self-serve and open to handling, such as coffee, tea and soup has been moved to behind the service counter for safer food handling practices.
• All scheduled events and community gatherings are cancelled to ensure the continued safety of the Northern College community, including, the Spring Craft Show, Holi, Open House, Annual Northern College Powwow and all classes and events hosted by Northern’s Training Division and Academic Upgrading and Continuing Education.