KPU Senate Approves Final Version of Vision 2023
KPU Provost Salvador Ferreras gestures during a presentation of Vision 2023 at a KPU Senate meeting, May 28. (Braden Klassen)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University is in the process of finalizing its next five-year academic plan. KPU Provost and VP Academic Salvador Ferreras presented a summary of the plan at the KPU Senate meeting on May 28.
The plan, which is accompanied by a document called Vision 2023, will provide the guiding principles and policies for the university to adhere to as it grows over the next five years. A draft of the document indicates that there are nine goals which the university will be dedicated to pursuing over the next five years. These goals are organized into four different categories: experience, sustainability, creativity and quality.
The plan also contains several strategies for accomplishing these goals, and addresses topics that will become more relevant as KPU continues to develop. This includes accommodating international students, creating open education policies, focusing on Indigenous relationships and decolonization, and even introducing graduate studies programs.
“Although this may seem like a daunting task, we of course won’t embark on everything all at once,” Ferreras said at the May 28 meeting, adding that “some parts of it are actually already underway or well in development.”
In addition to the other strategies, Vision 2023 also puts a focus on the increasing the digitization of teaching and learning. One of the methods of accomplishing this is preparing for the ongoing changes being made to the K-12 curriculum in B.C., which will conclude in 2020 alongside new Grade 11 and 12 curriculums.
According to the academic plan, KPU will continue to invest in and support open education, which grants students access to educational materials for free. The school is also planning on expanding and developing its programs and resources for international students, as international enrolment has skyrocketed recently.
Ferreras also said that KPU has started the process of creating graduate studies, or Master’s programs, in several faculties.
“The Senate accepted the creation of an office of graduate studies, which lays out the pathway for us to develop actual graduate programs,” he said. “Maybe two years from now we’ll see the proposal for the first graduate program here.”
Vision 2023 also stresses the importance of accountability from staff, faculty, and the administration to ensure that students receive quality education. Ferreras explained that the new plan has come with new methods and metrics for judging KPU’s progress toward achieving these goals, which the university had been developing and improving since it published Vision 2018.
