Is KPU a Pit Stop School?

Why some students choose to leave, and others stick around

When I first arrived at KPU, the prestigiousness of its reputation was not a priority. As an enthusiastic high school graduate, I was too excited to be moving onto my post-secondary career to consider that my school of choice may not be the most reputable one in British Columbia.

But it wasn’t long before I got a somewhat disheartening feel for the rest of the student body’s general consensus: KPU is academic limbo, where you spend a bit of time on the cheap before jetting off to somewhere more top-tier.

The first time I remember gathering that impression was while talking to fellow students. When discussing our courses together, they always seemed to mention their plans to transfer to a different institution in the future, as if leaving were their saving grace and being in the classroom with me their Achilles’ heel. Honestly, even I planned to get my Bachelor’s degree at KPU before moving downtown for school, and I definitely was not the only one with those intentions.

From my perspective as a first-year student, KPU was cheap, close to my home, and small. That’s why I chose to come here, and so far, I have not regretted that choice. There is inarguably something to be said for its advantages; while my friends studying at UBC were completing 5k runs between classes, I was sipping on a Tim Horton’s tea and admiring the Surrey campus’ scenery. While they were slugging through rush hour traffic from the Lower Mainland to downtown Vancouver, I was spending thirty minutes reading the news on a spacious suburban bus. And while they were panicking because they couldn’t get in touch with their professor in time to hand in an assignment, I was getting coffee with mine to consult weeks before my projects were due.

This raises the question: Why do so many people want to leave KPU? Although many of its students talk about making the great escape to another school, I have never been jealous of the hectic and overstimulated environment at city-sized universities. So what are we doing wrong here at Kwantlen Polytechnic University—if anything—and are people really as desperate to leave as they seem to be?

Bailey Wyka, a second-year general studies student, says that although no one is to blame for it,  “KPU is definitely considered a pit stop school.”

“It’s because of the fact that it used to be specifically a trades college. It’s not recognized by the majority of people as a high-standard university like SFU and UBC,” she says. “People believe that, to be a true graduate of university, they need to pay [a large sum of money] to go to these schools, but KPU has the same courses with the same level of difficulty except in smaller classrooms.”

She adds that everyone ought to be proud of attending KPU, although she expects to transfer to the University of Calgary to study veterinary medicine within the next two years.

KPU Journalism major Ashley Hyshka only considers the university a pit-stop school “in some regards,” disclosing that many of her peers “are either attending or plan to attend KPU to earn some of their basic credits before transferring to either UBC or SFU.”

Hyshka goes on to say that because KPU is a young university and one of the only polytechnic schools in the country, its reputation suffers, but she isn’t phased by the stigma.

“We haven’t had enough time to establish ourselves yet,” she says. “To me, it’s all about who has the most compelling program and whose professors can prepare me for this world. Whether you’re a student or KPU itself, we all have to start somewhere.”

On a more radical end of the spectrum is KPU Provost & Vice President Academic Salvador Ferreras, who attests that it is “absolutely not” a pit-stop. Rather, transferring between educational institutions is common in Canada as a country. The amount of students transferring out of KPU has actually declined since 2011, when 9 per cent of the student body left for another institution, although how many returned to it is unknown.

“Does KPU have a lot more transfer students than everybody else? No, actually. That’s the norm,” he says. “Ever since the 1990’s, the entire post-secondary education system in North America and in Europe has been guided by a move towards student mobilization. British Columbia has the most advanced transfer system in the country.”

Five years ago, there were more than 13,000 students enrolled at more than one institution, according to Ferreras, and it has become common for them to “cluster degrees.”

“They’re going and putting them together like you would go and purchase a number of services. They have access to a lot of information because of the ease of working within the BC transfer system,” he explains. “They’ll have some core training at KPU, take a few specialized courses at Douglas or UVIC, and then take a few other courses from UBC and complete their capstone back at KPU. It’s a very common happening.”

In a study conducted by The British Columbia Council on Admissions & Transfer (BCCAT) in 2013, it was concluded that university students were transferring to colleges at the same rate that college students moved to universities. By flitting from place-to-place, they acquire a mixture of academic and hands-on skills in various environments, enabling them to thrive in the 21st century’s competitive job market.

Ferreras cites the survey as proof that a lack of student retention isn’t necessarily a fault of KPU’s, but a standard across the board of academic institutions.

“Students from UBC, SFU, and UVIC, with full degrees in everything from graphic design, fine arts, and engineering were then moving to places like Auckland or BCIT or VCC to get more work-ready skills and industry experience that they don’t get in those academic programs.”

Ferreras also attributes students’ short stays at the school to KPU’s unique but sometimes limited course selection. Because it doesn’t offer degrees beyond a Bachelor level, it makes sense that students leave to further their education. That was even truer when it was a polytechnic school that didn’t offer degrees at all. However, its niche programs such as those for beekeeping and equine foot care might draw scholars in. Where else can you learn to brew beer and sell marijuana in a scholastic setting?

And yet, there’s still an obvious lack of student morale at KPU. The transfers out must partially be due to its limited course selection and the transfer-friendly environment in BC, but the only other reasonable conclusion is that the university hasn’t been around long enough to bring UBC-level honour to its name.

Fortunately, KSA Vice-president student life Natasha Lopes believes that students’ perception of the university is changing, based on her observations of the increasing growth of clubs and number of graduates.

“KPU was a ‘pit stop school’ because, at one point in its life time, students needed to transfer to other institutions to attain degrees. But now that KPU has changed into a degree giving school, students are choosing to stay.”

“This is highly indicative of the changes that students are feeling towards KPU and the education that they receive,” she resolves.