Template talk:Seminaries and theological colleges in Canada

There is a very distinct difference between a theology school and a bible college which may have a degree-granting charter from its provincial government - theology schools have accreditation with the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada and are almost universally accredited by their provincial post-secondary authorities. Bible colleges do not exist in this domain, nor do they carry the same level of academic rigour. In theory, some "bible colleges" could become seminaries if they met the criteria and achieved accreditation, but I'm not aware of any, at least among the ones in this template.

I've removed St. Stephen's University from this template since it is a small former bible college which is now a private university offering primarily undergraduate degrees of a religious nature. Atlantic Baptist University is a considerably larger institution but has a similar history of development. Both insitutions would be comparable with Trinity Western University in B.C., or several of the private universities in Alberta and Ontario. Bethany Bible College in New Brunswick and Maritime Christian College in Prince Edward Island are bible colleges which have now been given degree-granting charters, again primarily at the undergraduate level. I would argue that they should be placed under the "private university" categories for their respective provincial templates since they are private institutions. Only publicly funded universities have accreditation with the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission.

As for so-called "bible colleges" - we cannot deny that these institutions exist as universities/colleges/post-secondary institutions, nor that these provinces have given them university degree-granting charters. The only distinction I would make is that they are not "seminaries". Perhaps a template can be made for Canadian Post-Secondary Religious Institutions which would encompass all of these, seminaries and private religious-oriented universities & colleges? Plasma east 07:27, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I'm not going to argue this in two places. Go over to Template talk:NB Uni and argue it there. --Spinboy 07:34, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Question...

I know NOTHING about seminaries, but would Regent College qualify as one? -→Buchanan-Hermit™/?! 05:13, 15 July 2006 (UTC)