May 27, 2020
Portage College students will be getting an online education this fall. The College’s Executive Committee reviewed several potential COVID-19-related scenarios for the fall and decided that programs will remain online through December in order to keep students, employees and communities safe and to limit disruption to student learning. Portage will accommodate on-site labs where required in the fall through small groups and social distancing measures.
“It is in the best interest of serving students to have a predictable plan,” said Nancy Broadbent, President and CEO of Portage College. “We will invest in assisting faculty to move from the emergency response that happened in 2019-20 academic year, to a robust, engaging delivery with students for the fall. Making a decision for fall semester now will allow more time to further improve our virtual experience for our students,”
She added that the College will continue to follow the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Alberta and the possibility of face-to-face for the winter semester will be decided upon in October.
Some projects and/or programming will be delayed or postponed because of this decision. Students and community partners are asked to contact the main switchboard to be directed to the program or service area for more details.
The College Salon, Bookstore and residences will be open as permitted by the Chief Medical Officer, but other service areas such as food services, recreation and the libraries will remain closed until further notice. Online services for library and bookstore will be available.
Portage employees will continue working from home until December with sign-in procedures in place for those who are required on site. Those working on campus will have to adhere to the health and safety measures that are in place.
The Emergency Planning and Response team will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and provide ongoing communications through the Portage Alert app.
Media Inquiries:
Jaime Davies, Corporate Communications Manager
780-623-5581 or email
We acknowledge that Portage College’s service region is on the traditional lands of First Nation Peoples, the owners of Treaty 6, 8 and 10, which are also homelands to the Métis people. We honour the history and culture of all people who first lived and gathered in these lands.