Home Education Admissions Policy Recommendations

Dear Post-Secondary Institution Representative,

We are often asked for assistance with the creation of home education friendly admissions policies.  We thank you for the opportunity to advise and provide the following suggestions for your consideration.

  1. Keep your policy as simple and straight forward as possible to reduce misunderstandings. 
  2. Be sure that your Home Education Policy is made clear to all admission staff so it can be consistently applied.
  3. Most importantly, please be aware of the fact that any mention of requiring provincial accreditation in any format, including the need for completing high school level courses at the institution, not only defeats the purpose of this web site listing, but immediately disqualifies the institution from receiving the Education Unlimited Endorsement as Home Education Friendly.

We highly recommend you read an article written by our Director, Léo Gaumont, who has summarized his many years of experience in Summary of Post-Secondary Admissions Practices When Dealing With Unaccredited Home Educated Students.

It is clearly understood that post-secondary admissions personnel need to qualify potential students and that there are certain criteria that must be met.  The easiest approach is conditional acceptance, which puts the responsibility for proving proficiency directly on the student.  However, this is not always practical, depending on the nature of the institution and the program.

Generally speaking, until institutions have gained a lot of experience with the success of unaccredited home education students, they prefer to use objective third party instruments in assessing the student’s level of proficiency, including:

  1. Transfer options for previously completed post-secondary level programs.
  2. Standardized tests such as ELSAT, SAT, or ACT.
  3. Institutionally created entrance exam.
  4. Providing opportunity for the potential student to challenge key first year programs by allowing them to write the final exam. (Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition - PLAR.)

There is usually a need for some evidential proof of what has been generally been accomplished in a home education program including:

  1. Some form of Transcript (recommended)
  2. Portfolio of Accomplishments (limited application)

We trust that these few suggestions are helpful.  They are largely a summary of what we find listed in the web site and so we suggest you see what other institutions within your specific category have included as part of their web site listing.  Otherwise, please feel free to use or borrow from our suggested Home Education Admissions Policy below:

Home Education Admissions Policy Template

Our institution recognizes that individuals who have not followed a school-based program can still be successful in a post-secondary setting.  Therefore, home educated students may be admitted on the basis of the following:

1) A letter of recommendation from the teacher/parent, or a home education organization, including a summary of academic achievements (i.e., a home-made or third party transcript).

AND

2) A satisfactory score on a recognized third-party examination such as an SAT or ACT.

OR

3) The successful completion of online courses at a recognized post-secondary institution.