Canadian Schools

Started by neurogirl23
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neurogirl23

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I was recently made aware that Canadian programs will no longer have accreditation from APA starting 2015. Do you know how that impacts accreditation status if one is enrolled before that date? If we want to attend an accredited school should we take Canadian ones off the list?

Thanks!
 
You would need to graduate by 2015 (including completing internship) to be able to graduate from an APA accredited program in Canada. People graduating after 2015 will graduate from CPA accredited programs only.

Therefore, if you're applying this year and your heart is set on APA accreditation, you should take Canadian programs off your list.

(Note that there's some hope that US employers will consider APA and CPA accreditation equivalent after 2015, but it's all somewhat speculative at this point.)
 
What is the reason for this change?

I have an unrelated masters from McGill University, which is usually ranked #1 in Canada (or tied) for medical/doctoral universities. It has been #1 for at least 4 years in a row, I think. I can attest to the fact that it is an excellent school, and is generally ranked (along with a couple other Canadian universities) as one of the top 20 universities in the world.

Does the APA consider the programs to be deficient in some way, or is the accreditation process just being restructured?
 
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lizzo76 said:
What is the reason for this change?
Click to expand...

The reason is, apparently, this and only this:

The APA was being asked by institutions in multiple other countries to accredit them, and Canada was being used an an example of the APA accrediting foreign institutions.

The APA, being staffed primarily by people without fully functioning executive systems, decided to stop accrediting foreign institutions rather than take the opportunity to make money hand over fist and control foreign programs.
 
lizzo76 said:
Does the APA consider the programs to be deficient in some way, or is the accreditation process just being restructured?
Click to expand...

I have been told the CPA is actually a bit more stringent than the APA. There is often a misunderstanding about APA-acred. It was never meant to be this elite level, its original purpose was to establish the MINIMAL amount of training a program should provide its students. Go figure.
 
thewesternsky said:
(Note that there's some hope that US employers will consider APA and CPA accreditation equivalent after 2015, but it's all somewhat speculative at this point.)
Click to expand...

This might be a dumb question, but would this affect practicum placements as well? For example, would people at a Canadian CPA accredited institution be allowed to do practicums in the US? My school is in a border city (in Canada), and lots of students currently do practicums on the US side.
 
CanPsychGirl said:
This might be a dumb question, but would this affect practicum placements as well? For example, would people at a Canadian CPA accredited institution be allowed to do practicums in the US? My school is in a border city (in Canada), and lots of students currently do practicums on the US side.
Click to expand...

I would say it's unlikely to affect practicum agreements that are already in place, but I suppose it's possible. The best people to ask would be faculty in your program and/or the directors of the practicum sites.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. Anyone else have input?
 
I'm going to guess that this will not end up affecting much, though people will initially be confused and worried. My McGill masters (I am American, by the way) is in a field which generally needs to be accredited by a certain professional organization in the US. You must have a degree accredited by that association "or the equivalent" in order to get a job in the US. The McGill program IS accredited by the US body, but if it were not, I think that would be acceptable. There are equivalent bodies in the UK and Europe, and those are acceptable.

US employers will just have to readjust their expectations. The Canadian schools are no different from how they have been in the past... so this should not affect opportunities in the US.
 
I went to the CPA conference last year and this was a hot topic. Everyone on both sides anticipates that the accreditations will be viewed as equivalent but they're all waiting to see how it plays out in real life.
 
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