The birth of Capilano University

The British Columbia government has named yet another university with the rebranding of North Vancouver’s Capilano College as Capilano University.

The move comes on the heels of three other major announcements this week with Kwantlen University College, Malaspina University College and the University College of the Fraser Valley all being granted full university status. The earlier announcements followed a major review of the province’s post-secondary system titled Campus 2020.

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Former attorney general Geoff Plant, who authored the report, recommended that the province’s three university colleges be renamed “regional universities” to better reflect the fact that the institutions, though teaching-focused, have an extensive array of university-level programming in addition to vocational and other traditional college programs.

As with the other institutions premier Gordon Campbell stressed the regional focus of Capilano as well as placing emphasis on the college’s non-degree programs. “The creation of Capilano University will mean thousands of students throughout the Howe Sound Corridor will have access to degree granting programs and be able to reach their educational goals close to home,” said Campbell. “Capilano University will build on its already first-rate international reputation for programs like animation, tourism, and the arts, including the largest film program in Western Canada.”

Capilano is unique from the other institutions rebranded as universities this week in that it has never been designated a university college, and only offers a handful of bachelor degree programs in jazz studies, business administration, music therapy and tourism.

In fact, the Campus 2020 report recommended that the province’s community colleges be stripped of their independent degree granting status, and instead revert back to offering degrees in association with major universities. Capilano offered its degrees through the Open Learning Institute, now Thompson Rivers University, until 2003.

“I get that Cap College reaches way up — its region goes up to Pemberton — but the core audience of Cap College is the North Shore of Vancouver, which is within very easy reach of UBC and SFU. I don’t think it’s the right place to create a regional university today,” Plant told the Georgia Straight last August.