Higher learning bodes well for biz

Education in the Fraser Valley took a giant step forward in April with the announcement that both of its university colleges have been awarded full-fledged university status.

This means the soon-to-be Kwantlen Polytechnic University and University of the Fraser Valley will become degree-granting institutions. (Though both were already offering some four-year degree programs.)

The move is timely and, in the eyes of many, long overdue. Over the next 20 years, the Fraser Valley’s population is forecast to double.

The number of 18 to 24-year-olds here is growing six times faster than the provincial average. Yet according to the 2006 Canada Census, only 17 per cent of valley residents over 15-years-old hold a university degree, compared to 30 per cent in Vancouver.

Considering this region’s rapid expansion and the prospect of continued business growth, the need for enhanced educational opportunities has never been greater. “To fully participate in regional growth, we need to have more people completing degrees,” says Kwantlen’s president Skip Triplett. “The university designation now makes it clear that we are equipped to facilitate exactly that.”

It will also help with faculty recruitment and improve graduates’ access to advanced degree studies, he adds.

But don’t expect the region to be overrun by packs of dome-headed boffins sporting pocket protectors and mortar boards.

Both Kwantlen and UFV have a bead on the practical needs of their communities and the businesses that operate within them. And at the moment, this means trades, trades and more trades.

“We see this as an opportunity for a paradigm shift in education,” says Triplett. “Canadians have tended to look at the trades as a secondary career, but that’s not necessarily the case. We now have a chance to change that.”

To that end, Kwantlen students’ work experience within the trades will count for degree credits, and students will be offered a third-year course in entrepreneurship to better equip them for success in the trades. “As a result, we’ll be able to attract more students to these areas and elevate the profile of trades,” Triplett says.

As growing numbers of students arrive at Kwantlen and UFV, businesses in a variety of industries can take heart in the knowledge they might soon get a larger talent pool to draw from.

UFV plans to build on its success in programs such as criminology and criminal justice, aviation and Indo-Canadian studies. It will also introduce new programs, including alternative fuel vehicle maintenance and repair, scheduled to begin next year.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University is expected to expand upon its existing programs in trades and technology, community health services – including a unique bachelor of psychiatric nursing – sustainable horticulture and applied design.

UFV president Skip Bassford believes the new moniker will effect an overall change in how the community perceives his school.

“When people thought of us as a college, they thought two-year institution,” he says. “The reality is we have been offering advanced education for a long time. Now that we are officially recognized as a university, people will think of us differently.”

Academically, though, Bassford doesn’t see the new name making a huge difference. UFV already offers 13 different bachelor degrees with 22 majors and plans to expand its masters programs in the coming years.

“We will continue to concentrate on being primarily an undergraduate university, and on providing a high quality of teaching, rather than being a research university,” says Bassford.

The expansion of the universities will bring a host of economic spin-offs, too. “We currently spend about a half billion in the region,” Triplett says. “As we grow, that number will grow.”

Anita Huberman, executive director of the Surrey Board of Trade, understands this connection well. “We know when foreign students come into the area, they’re going to spend money on housing, food, transportation, entertainment, as well as tuition and books,” she says.

University status will also better position both schools to attract donations and snag a larger share of research funding.

And while both Kwantlen and UFV are counting on drawing more foreign students from abroad to continue raising their profiles internationally, they also want to ensure they are effectively serving local needs.

“It is a documented fact that the retention rate of Fraser Valley post secondary students drops dramatically if they leave the area for their education,” says Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce executive director David Hull.

“So it only makes sense to have every possible education opportunity available right here in the valley, so we don’t lose our best and brightest.”

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Everyone’s a winner

The B.C. government has also bestowed university status on Capilano College, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and Malaspina University-College (now Vancouver Island University), going beyond the university expansion recommended in a review of the province’s post-secondary system completed last year.

The latest changes bring the total number of B.C. universities to 11, following the guidance of former attorney-general Geoff Plant’s Campus 2020 report to end the overlap between two-year colleges and four-year universities.

The creation of North Vancouver-based Capilano University leaves 11 community colleges around the province.

The promotion for Emily Carr, a boutique art school on Vancouver’s Granville Island, leaves B.C. with three institutes: B.C. Institute of Technology in Burnaby, the Justice Institute of B.C. in New Westminster and Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in Merritt.