Baccalaureate Degrees at Capilano College
Capilano College has been delivering first and second year university undergraduate
courses since its creation in 1969. In 1991 Capilano College entered into the first of four
collaborative degree programs with the BC Open University with the Degree of Bachelor
of Music Therapy. This was followed in 1992 by the Bachelor of Music (Jazz Studies),
in 1997 by the Bachelor of Tourism Management and in 1998 by the Bachelor of
Business Administration degree. All of the coursework was conducted by Capilano
College and transferred to the Open University who granted the degree. Oversight was
provided by the Academic Council of the BC Open University whose members were
faculty and administrators drawn from the major universities, partner institutions, and the
BCOU faculty.
In 2003 the BC legislature granted colleges the authority to grant baccalaureate degrees.
In order to delineate the fields of study of the degrees that would be allowed, the
legislation defined them as applied baccalaureate degrees. In retrospect, given the lack of
consensus that the term “applied degrees” has across Canada, this was an unfortunate
decision. In fact the degrees that have been authorized, either by grand-parenting as is
the case for Capilano, or newly approved by the BC Degree Quality Assessment Board,
are all four year, 120 credit degrees whose distinguishing characteristic is that they are in
applied areas of study.
Capilano College was authorized by the province of B.C. to grant the four degrees
mentioned above by Order in Council in May 2003. Since that time almost 300 degrees
have been awarded and students have gone on to both employment and further study.
Attachments:
Legislation extract
Letter from Assistant Deputy Minister
Order in Council
Degree Program Descriptions
Letter from University of British Columbia, Faculty of Education