KPU approves new faculty of graduate studies, bringing students closer to master’s degrees

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Master’s degree opportunities are on the horizon for Kwantlen Polytechnic University students following the school’s Board of Governor’s decision to approve a new faculty of graduate studies on May 22. 

The faculty, which provides a home for academic governance and conversation regarding the development of master’s programs, is set to fully establish on Sept. 1, along with a new policy on graduate degrees.  

“Graduate studies is certainly a part of the future of KPU, and master’s programming is very much a part of what our community needs from us and where we need to go for part of our offerings,” says David Burns, associate vice president academic at KPU. 

“KPU is a really important component of the communities we serve.… So we spend a lot of time trying to find out from local businesses, government leaders, and our community what the community needs, … where the future for this region is. A big part of that future is the kind of leadership that graduate degrees prepare you for.”

An academic team was developed to create the new faculty, which consulted with the university community along with other institutions to see what KPU needs and the type of unique approach they could take.

The first master’s degree KPU has proposed is in operations, supply chain, and logistics management, which is still subject to approval. Burns says this field was selected as it is an area in the community that is in need of leadership and people with advanced qualifications. 

“Supply chain has been an enormous part of everyday life,” he says. 

“KPU’s Melville School of Business is highly engaged, highly polytechnic, [and] very effective. It’s a great part of university. So the combination of this area that we have expertise and [the] obvious need in the community … shows us that we’ve got something really special to offer.” 

Offering graduate studies at KPU will bring new kinds of students to the university’s campuses, those who are already engaged in their careers and are looking to dive deeper into such. Burns says many KPU students go off to pursue graduate studies at other post-secondary institutions. 

“It would be wonderful if we could not only keep some of those students to do their advanced studies at the graduate level here, but also to attract students from other institutions to bring in more of this graduate level study to the university, and that just adds to the community and academic culture that we have,” he says. 

Reconciliation was weaved into the development of this new faculty by meeting and learning from Indigenous community members, creating a decolonized policy for the faculty. 

“For me, the most meaningful component of this process so far is what we have learned through carrying a reconciliation lens to this work,” Burns says. 

“These are moments in which we need to hold ourselves to what we say our priorities are.… So we started the [reconciliation] process before we wrote any of the policy by going off to speak to Elders and knowledge keepers.” 

Most western education systems often “take a position of judgment over people,” Burns says, adding that a supportive, community relationship-driven education system that guides students is needed. 

“It’s always important here to start by saying none of this is enough. This is not a, ‘We have finished this piece of reconciliation,’ absolutely not. These are an important piece of a lifetime’s worth of work.”  

KPU nursing student Amanprit Bhullar says it’s exciting that KPU is working towards offering master’s degrees and would “100 per cent” enroll in graduate studies at the university. 

“I’m now taking my bachelor’s here, so I feel like I would forever want to be part of the KPU community,” Bhullar says. “I feel like it’s convenient because we’ve already had to navigate through [KPU’s] Moodle and all that stuff.” 

Burns says KPU is currently looking into other subjects to offer graduate studies in, which will all be greatly researched, tested, and looked at from a reconciliation lens before being developed and proposed. 

“If you take a KPU degree, you are entitled to feel that that degree is a solid foundation for whatever you’re going to do for a very long time,” he says. “That’s our promise to students.”