Cap College
wants lo be

a university

College responds to government report

James Weldon
jweldon@nsnews.com

IN the wake of a government report recommending colleges
be banned from offering degrees, North Vancouver's
Capilano College - which boasts a substantial and growing
list of degrees among its programs - may have found a tidy
solution: become a university.
The report,called Access and Excellence: The Campus 2020 Plan for British
Columbia's Post-Secondary Education System, was submitted by former
attorney general Geoff Plant to the province's advanced education minister
on April 23. It outlined 52 recommendations intended to improve British
Columbia's post-secondary education system. Among them was a suggestion
to preclude community colleges from granting degrees in order to "restore
(their) primary focus."
The idea didn't sit well with Capilano College.
While many of the institution's programs involve professional certificates
of one type or another, several, including business, tourism, jazz studies and
music therapy,lead to degrees. Eight more degree progran1s are planned.
If Plant's recommendations are adopted by the province, all that would
end.
"There would be a huge linutation on what's available to students,particularly
in our region," said Greg Lee,president of the college. "(Our) degrees are not
general arts degrees or general science degrees, they're employment focused
degrees....Those are things that just wouldn't be available."
Plant argued his recommendation would help the province's education
system as a whole, since it would avoid overlap between different types of

See University page 3