The college said the program will continue in 2027.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/548cbf30f4f3866cbb8d6cce3eba5b98.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
(Ben Nelms\/CBC)<\/p>\n
B.C. Nurses\u2019 Union president Adriane Gear said she learned of the program changes when prospective students reached out saying they\u2019d received rejection letters explaining the situation.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s “concerned” by the news, given that there are thousands of permanent nursing vacancies in B.C.<\/p>\n
“Very concerning, especially when you think about the fact that we have reached an agreement with the Ministry of Health to implement minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. Now, ratios are important because it provides a basic standard of care for patients so that patients have safe care,” she told CBC\u2019s The Early Edition.<\/p>\n
“We will not have enough nurses to do this.”<\/p>\n
Gear said post-secondary institutions need to create more nursing program seats, rather than cutting back.<\/p>\n
“We need more support for nursing students,” she said, pointing to high costs nursing students face travelling for practicums.<\/p>\n
Alona Kolesnychenko, a nursing student at VCC and board member of the student union, said she’s shocked by the college’s decision.<\/p>\n
“I know people who were trying to get into this 2026 intake and I know that was a devastation for them because you need to do different prerequisites to go to a different school,” she said.<\/p>\n
Kolesnychenko said nursing class sizes are small, and she estimates at least 25 people were rejected because of the program pause.<\/p>\n
She’s heard from applicants that feel “like a failure” after being rejected.<\/p>\n
“It’s not like they did something wrong, it’s the system that failed,” Kolesnychenko said.<\/p>\n
She said the student union has been fighting for more funding from the provincial government, so that schools can rely less on international student fees.<\/p>\n
Speaking from the legislature on Wednesday, B.C. Minister for Post-Secondary Education Jessie Sunner said she knows institutions are being forced to make tough decisions right now.<\/p>\n
She said a post-secondary review looking at labour market needs and ensuring programs reflect that will be released soon.<\/p>\n
Sunner said the situation at VCC does not help the nursing shortage, but pointed to other schools in the province that have added seats, like North Island College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As B.C. grapples with a years-long shortage of nurses and health-care professionals, Vancouver Community College (VCC) has rejected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[233420,49,48,233418,233422,233421,172666,198687,233419,55,233417],"class_list":{"0":"post-622197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver","8":"tag-adriane-gear","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-international-student","12":"tag-nursing-program","13":"tag-nursing-shortage","14":"tag-nursing-students","15":"tag-post-secondary-institutions","16":"tag-prospective-students","17":"tag-vancouver","18":"tag-vancouver-community-college"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}