KPU will waive tuition fees for students from seven First Nations

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Kwantlen Polytechnic University will waive tuition fees for the members of seven local First Nations beginning this fall.

The waiver will apply to new and current students who are a part of the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Musqueam, Tsawwassen, Qayqayt, and Kwikwetlem First Nations of which KPU’s campuses reside on their unceded and shared ancestral territories.

KPU leadership announced the decision on June 20 as a measure towards truth and reconciliation.

“It’s a … pretty fundamental and simple way to go one step beyond acknowledging the lands that we’re on to invite then Indigenous students [who] come from those nations to come to KPU and share what we have to offer,” says KPU President and Vice-Chancellor Alan Davis.

Gayle Bedard, associate vice-president of Indigenous leadership, innovation, and partnerships, hopes the waiver will provide eligible Indigenous students with better opportunities and self-determination.

“My dad went to residential school [and] my mom went to the Indian day school, but the way the Indian Act was set up, it was to make sure that my parents, my grandparents, were not successful in the economy. They did everything they could to prevent them [from being] self-sufficient,” Bedard says.

“It is my hope that opening the doors to the seven nations will build on their social economy, because they can now give back to their community as educated citizens.”

Davis says the waiver will also remove financial barriers for Indigenous students.

“We know the First Nations do get some funding for post-secondary education. As I understand it, it’s nowhere near enough to cover the tuition and other costs that there are of going to college or university,” he says.

“Presumably, that means not everybody is able to get the support from their own nation, and in a sense, this helps each of the nations meet the demand by having KPU as tuition free.”

To receive the waiver, eligible students will have their membership confirmed by their nation.

“KPU will not be involved in [the confirmation]. We will set up a process. That’s what I’m currently doing is setting up conversations with each nation to say what it’s going to look like.” Bedard says. 

Davis says conversations among leadership on creating the tuition waiver began sometime last year, but the topic came up again when the University of Waterloo announced a tuition waiver in late May for students from its two local First Nations.

KPU has also followed the University of Northern British Columbia, which began offering free tuition to the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation in October 2019.

In addition to the tuition waiver, KPU released the xéʔelɬ Pathway to Systemic Transformation Framework on the same day. The framework, which has 60 goals divided into six pathways, details the university’s commitment to upholding the calls to action from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Davis sees the framework will likely be made into a multi-year plan to add the needed resources, people, and organization to implement the goals.

“We accept the challenge in fact to not let this just sit on the shelf, but to actually do something about it,” he says.

“[We] can’t do it all right away, first of all, but things take time anyway, and if we can gradually build up our capacity to support Indigenous learners and Indigenous communities, [then] that’s how we will do it.”