CALGARY — The numbers speak for themselves: In certain parts of Canada far more students are seeking university degrees than there are spots available.

"We could certainly use more universities in Alberta, B.C. and Metro Toronto," says Alex Usher, director of the Educational Policy Institute, an independent research group based in Toronto.

In Alberta, for instance, the University of Calgary turned away 5,094 qualified applicants in the fall of 2006, compared with 779 in the fall of 1997.

Enter the Canadian college.

Colleges are offering more four-year degrees, not necessarily because they want to be universities but to meet student demand for this level of education.

Calgary's Mount Royal College just launched a bachelor of nursing degree this fall and plans to offer baccalaureate degrees in criminal justice, arts, science, communication and business administration as soon as the Campus Alberta Quality Council gives its blessing.

In 2005, Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton became the first college in Alberta to grant baccalaureate degrees. Now the school offers degrees in arts, commerce, science in nursing, child and youth care, and is already approved for a bachelor of music. The school is also awaiting permission from the Campus Alberta Quality Council and the province's Ministry of Education and Technology to offer a bachelor of science.

Eighty-five per cent of Mount Royal's students are seeking degrees while the remaining 15 per cent are in certificate or diploma programs, says David Marshall, the school's president.

"Becoming a university with nothing else changed here would be meaningless," he says. "Our goal is to deliver the credentials that our students want."

And need. More jobs require four-year degrees than ever before. Over the next 10 years nearly 80 per cent of the new jobs being created in Calgary will require post-secondary education, according to the Calgary Economic Development Authority.

"Our students have told us two things," says Dr. Marshall. "They want to stay here to complete their degree, and there's a bottleneck when they try to get into their third year at the University of Calgary."

The same goes for Grant MacEwan, where more than half of the student population consists of university transfer students.

"In 2006, over 500 bachelor of commerce students who had a GPA of almost 3.3 — close to honours students — couldn't transfer to the University of Alberta's bachelor of commerce program for their third year," says Janet Paterson-Weir, provost and executive vice-president, academic, at Grant MacEwan.

That situation motivated the school to find a solution.

"Every degree that we have created here has had a different story," she says. The child and youth-care degree, for example, came about because there was nowhere in Alberta for students to move on after their second year.

A third western Canadian college seeking to offer more university-level education is Capilano College in Vancouver, which has been granting degrees since 2003. Capilano's vision is for a different type of university — one that is teaching-focused and offers vocational studies yet can also grant degrees.

It is difficult for a college to be officially recognized as a university in Canada because there is no national accreditation body, says Greg Lee, the school's president.

So Capilano is seeking formal accreditation in the United States.

"We want to show that what we do is legitimate, but there is nowhere in Canada to seek that legitimacy," says Dr. Lee.

The only national body that Canada has — with whom membership serves as a benchmark of university-level education — is the not-for-profit Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). To qualify for membership, schools must meet requirements concerning scholarship and research, governance, academic staff, library services and breadth and depth of degree programs, among other things.

Christine Tausig Ford, AUCC's corporate secretary, says, "Membership in AUCC, particularly when combined with the provincial charter, which is an element of our membership criteria, is widely accepted in lieu of accreditation."

Dr. Paterson-Weir says the Canadian processes toward gaining the ability to grant degrees, which are all based on peer review, are extensive. "By the time you do get approval, a number of institutions have looked at your proposal and that lends it credibility."

When the Ontario College of Art and Design became a member of AUCC in October, 2006, it was a real point of pride. "The process was very rigorous and they do a very thorough review," says Sara Diamond, the university's president. Whether the institution will change its name to reflect its university status is under review, Ms. Diamond adds.

Mount Royal — which aspires to become an undergraduate university — is hoping to receive membership in AUCC in the next five years, and Grant MacEwan will start pursuing membership in the next two.

Mr. Usher says, "In Ontario, university enrolment is up 25 per cent over the last seven years and, in colleges, it's up 1 per cent, so people are voting with their feet."

Special to The Globe and Mail