About CATNS

Incorporated in 2021, the Council on Admission and Transfer for Nova Scotia Inc. (CATNS) was originally established in 2016 as the Nova Scotia Council on Admission and Transfer (NSCAT). Our mandate is to develop and manage collaborative systems that support student enrolment, student mobility and data portability.  We do this through:

• MyNSFuture.ca – connecting students to institution profiles, institutions’ online application forms, and other supporting information;
• MyTransferCredits – consolidating course-to-course transfer credit equivalencies in a searchable database and listing block transfer agreements;
• MySpring&SummerCourses – consolidating all Nova Scotia university and college, spring and summer session, in-person, online and hybrid course offerings in a single searchable database; and
• MyTranscripts – facilitating the delivery of electronic transcripts to universities and colleges in Nova Scotia.

MEMBERS

All publicly-funded universities and colleges in Nova Scotia participate in the activities of CATNS and serve on the Board of Directors.

• Acadia University
• Atlantic School of Theology
• Cape Breton University
• Dalhousie University
• Mount Saint Vincent University
• Nova Scotia Community College
• NSCAD University
• Saint Mary’s University
• St Francis Xavier University
• Université Sainte-Anne
• University of King’s College

GOVERNANCE

CATNS is governed by a Board of Directors which receives support from an Executive Committee, an Operations Committee, and the Executive Director.

The Board of Directors serves as the main policy-making, strategy, and goal setting body. The board is made up of the vice-president academic level (or designate) for each of the eleven publicly-funded universities and colleges in Nova Scotia.

The Executive Committee is comprised of the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors, the Chair and one member of the Operations Committee, and ex officio members who provide specialized input. This Committee provides direction for day-to-day activities of CATNS.

The Operations Committee is composed of the registrar level (or designate) from the eleven participating universities and colleges. The Operations Committee works closely with, and is supported by, the Executive Director in executing the projects and day-to-day activities of CATNS. Working groups are formed as needed for specific projects and activities.

PARTNERS

Collaboration is at the core of what we do at CATNS.  In addition to working with our eleven member-institutions, we collaborate with, and support the work of a variety of post-secondary education organizations across Canada and around the world, including:

• Alberta Council on Admissions and Transfer (ACAT)
• Apply Alberta / Alberta Postseconday Application Service (APAS)
• Association of Registrars of Universities and College of Canada (ARUCC)
• British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT)
• Campus Manitoba (CMB)
• Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials (CICIC)
• Council on Articulations and Transfer of New Brunswick (CATNB)
• Councils on Admissions/Articulations and Transfer of Canada Network (CATCan Network)
• EducationPlannerBC
• Groningen Declaration Network (GDN)
• NS Department of Education and Early Childhood Development
• NS Department of Advanced Education
• OCAS
• The Ontario Universities Application Centre (OUAC)
• Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer (ONCAT)
• Pan-Canadian Consortium on Admissions & Transfer (PCCAT)
• Postsecondary Education Standards Council (PESC)
• Saskatchewan Transfer Credit and Learner Pathway Council (STCLPC)

NEW & NOTABLE

May 3, 2019
NSCAT Awarded 1st Place in PESC’s 20th Anniversary Best Practices Competition

NSCAT is honoured to have been awarded 1st Place in the Postsecondary Education Standards Council’s 20th Anniversary Best Practices Competition. This award recognizes that our MyTranscripts system exemplifies innovation and ingenuity in the application and implementation of interoperable data standards to meet business needs.

The standards developed by PESC have allowed us to implement a systems integration pattern that affords us a great deal of flexibility, ease of use, and economies of scale for all stakeholder organizations. PESC is key to our success; without the standards they have so thoughtfully developed, and updated, our system would be isolated from the rest of the data exchange world.

NSCAT congratulations all our project partners – the eleven public universities and colleges in Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia departments of Advanced Education and Education and Early Childhood Development, and Concertia Technologies Inc. – for their hard work and commitment to building and maintaining this ground-breaking system that is making an difference in post-secondary education in our province. We look forward to working with our colleagues throughout Nova Scotia, Canada, and beyond as we work to expand our network of electronic data providers and receivers over the coming years.