Durham College is a

public college A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

Ontario, Canada Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, with two main campuses in

Oshawa Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the Greater Toronto Area and of the Golden Horseshoe. It ...

and

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is on the Yorkshire Coast at the mouth of the River Esk, North Yorkshire, River Esk and has a maritime, mineral and tourist economy. From the Middle Ages, Whitby ...

. Durham College offers over 145+ academic programs, including six bachelor degrees and eleven

apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...

programs, to around 13,700 full-time students.

History

The college opened on September 18, 1967, in Oshawa, with 16 portable classrooms, 14 staff and 205 students. It offered courses in

applied arts The applied arts are all the arts that apply design and decoration to everyday and essentially practical objects in order to make them aesthetically pleasing."Applied art" in ''The Oxford Dictionary of Art''. Online edition. Oxford Univ ...

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

and

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

. The college soon added courses in

health sciences The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to health sciences: Health sciences – those sciences that focus on health, or health care, as core parts of their subject matter. Health sciences relate to multiple a ...

and adult training. By 1977, enrollment had grown to 1,250 students. In 1993, the college opened a secondary campus in Whitby, Ontario. It began to offer skilled trades and apprenticeship programs through the campus's Skills Training Centre. In the early 2000s, the college established partnerships with

York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...

and Trent universities which allowed students to access university courses from the Durham College Oshawa campus. In 2003, a similar partnership was formed with Ontario Tech University. The college expanded its program offerings to include over 100 full-time programs. Enrollment grew to over 7,100 students. In 2018, Durham College completed construction on a new building known as the Centre for Collaborative Education (CFCE). It houses several classrooms for health programs and the Suswaaning Endaajig: First Peoples Indigenous Centre. The Ontario Power Generation Centre for Skilled Trades and Technology
CSTT
, located at the Whitby campus, opened in 2022 is home to numerous labs and shops. The facility allowed the college to increase its industrial skilled trades training capacity in Whitby by 750 students. In October 2022 it was announced that the college had acquired naming rights to the Oshawa GO Station, located 30 minutes away from the college's main campus by bus (8.2 km), for an undisclosed sum.

Student Life

Both campuses feature on-campus housing for students, sports and recreational activities, student services, a campus store, dining options, transportation and parking. The college features a campus library, which has four floors of learning space and a rotunda housing a periodicals collection. Other learning spaces include the computer learning commons, student services building, student centre, and a variety of other study spaces. Durham College offers first-year information, academic support resources, career services, student testing/in-class accommodations with approved documentation through the Access & Support Centre (ASC), and Student Academic Learning Services (SALS). The student life office and Student Association offer events and programs for students of all years. Student-run media includes ''The Chronicle'' online student newspaper, and Riot student radio. The college offers a variety of athletic programs.

Partnerships

Durham College shares its Oshawa campus and facilities like the library and athletic facilities with Ontario Tech University.

Programs

The college offers a wide range of programs in various disciplines, including business,

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

skilled trades A tradesperson or tradesman/tradeswoman is a skilled worker that specialises in a particular Trade (occupation), trade. Tradespeople (tradesmen/women) usually gain their skills through work experience, on-the-job training, an apprenticeship prog ...

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

, emergency services,

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

, social community services and engineering technology. Additionally, it administers part-time programs, micro-credentials, and professional development courses, available both online or in-person.

Campuses and locations

DC-Photo-DB-36585 20211201-CSTT-exterior-interior-building-photos--11

Durham College has two main campuses, located in Oshawa and Whitby, Ontario.

Presidents

* Gordon Willey (1967-1980) * Mel Garland (1980-1988) * Gary Polonsky (1988-2006) * Leah Myers (2006-2008) * Don Lovisa (2009–2024) * Elaine Popp (2024–present)

Notable Alumni

* Tyler Boyco - filmmaker and artist popular for making a

Robin Williams Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedie ...

portrait that went viral in 2014. * Brandon Nolan - retired hockey player, vice-president of Ted Nolan Foundation. * Patricia O'Connor - founding member of the Canadian Association of Aero-medical Transport. Recipient of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

in 2007 and recipient of the Premier's Award in 2009. * Lauren Toyota, vegan cookbook author and blogger; former Canadian television personality * Paul Vessey - COO of

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and recipient of the Premier's Award in 2000. * Fred Upshaw - former president of OPSEU, which represents 110,000 Ontario public sector workers; deceased. * Sheldon McIntosh - famous drag queen "Tynomi Banks", who starred on the first season of Canada's Drag Race.

Sports Teams

Varsity sports at Durham include: * Men's and women's golf * Men's baseball * Women's softball * Men's and women's volleyball * Men's and women's basketball * Men’s and women’s soccer * Men’s and women’s rugby * Mixed Esports Teams compete as the "Durham Lords".

References

External Links

*
Official athletics website
{{Authority control Durham College Colleges in Ontario Educational institutions established in 1967 Education in Oshawa 1967 establishments in Ontario