[溫哥華本地新聞] The New Surrey: Universities lag behind city demand growing, demand, result, school

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The New Surrey: Universities lag behind city demand

While Surrey’s population soars, SFU Surrey and Kwantlen universities have been growing, but not fast enough. As a result high school graduates need ever-higher marks to win a space and many have to leave Surrey to pursue their education



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Surrey+Universities+behind+city+demand/8004570/story.html#ixzz2LjqBjHfd
When Mariella Ocampo considered whether to pursue journalism at Kwantlen Polytechnic University or to complete a general arts degree at Simon Fraser University, one thing was certain: she wouldn’t have to leave her hometown to do it.
For the Surrey teenager, it made sense to stay close to home as she studied her options. Her friend R.J. Severo, 18, remained in Surrey for another reason: he didn’t have the grades to get into the University of B.C.
“It wasn’t my first choice,” said Severo, who is studying criminology and political science at Simon Fraser University. “But it’s really central and close to everything.”
Decades ago, someone like Severo may have given up on post-secondary education when he couldn’t get into UBC, as the transition rate from high school to university has traditionally been lower in cities south of the Fraser than in Richmond, Vancouver and the North Shore.
But that has been changing over the past 10 years, with Simon Fraser setting up a campus in Surrey’s City Centre and Kwantlen gaining university status. Even the University of B.C. is getting a foothold here, with Surrey Memorial Hospital a UBC training ground for family doctors.
But as more students — and older adults — flock to school, university officials fear they may be a victim of their own success, with the demand for seats outpacing the supply.
Enrolment at SFU Surrey, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, is already over capacity, with more than 7,000 full- and part-time students enrolled at the campus. And at Kwantlen Polytechnic, the numbers are just as staggering, with officials estimating capacity at 103 per cent.
Room for growth
“We’ve been flatlined in terms of growth since 2010,” said Joanne Curry, associate vice-president of external relations at SFU Surrey. “The population is growing and we’re not able to keep pace with that growth. We feel we’re getting behind.”
Curry maintains Surrey, with B.C.’s largest school district, has become the “major feeder district” of all SFU campuses and represents more than half of the Grade 12 enrolments in the Lower Mainland.
As a result, one in three SFU students will graduate from a school south of the Fraser, while the Surrey campus is also attracting students from other parts of Metro Vancouver.
Surrey has far fewer post-secondary seats, given its population, than other large B.C. cities, according to SFU Surrey.
And as the demand increases, Curry warns, so will the grade point averages needed to enter the university, making it more difficult for some students to attend SFU Surrey.
“We’re starting to see increases in the entering GPAs. It’s gone up in some cases by 10 per cent; some students got in at 75 per cent, and it’s now at 85 per cent,” Curry said. “As these rates rise up, I think we’re going to see some of these students being discouraged because it’s out of their reach.”
The situation prompted SFU Surrey officials last fall to appeal to the B.C. Advanced Ministry of Education, asking the province to double the size of the Surrey campus to 5,000 full-time students by 2015 from 2,500 seats today.
The request, one of many appeals made in the past seven years, follows a memorandum of understanding signed between SFU and the ministry in 2006, which aimed to ensure “B.C.’s economic competitiveness through higher education growth in the South Fraser.”
Also in 2006, the province funded the purchase of several parcels of land next to the university campus in Surrey’s City Centre for expansion. But nothing yet has been built. That land — two lots at 102nd Avenue and University Avenue — is being used for parking.
John Yap, B.C.’s advanced minister of education, said the memorandum was signed with the proviso that the province had the money to provide the additional resources. He noted in 2012-13, the province has provided $217 million to SFU — a 54-per-cent increase over 10 years ago.
The province has also put significant resources into Kwantlen Polytechnic, he said, as well as Langley’s University of the Fraser Valley, which also serves communities south of the Fraser.
“It’s up to SFU and Kwantlen where they allocate the block of funding,” Yap said, but added: “We do know they’re growing there and look forward to the day when we can add more seats.”

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Growing demand for an education at SFU Surrey has led to a rise in the grade point averages required to attend the school.

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Education a necessity

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said it’s important Surrey, with a third of its population under the age of 19, gets more post-secondary seats to ensure access to higher learning for local youth.

Surrey Board of Trade president Anita Huberman warns the city’s economy is at stake if Surrey doesn’t have an educated labour force, with people having both academic degrees and trades certification.

She urges the provincial government to phase in a tripling of the number of post-secondary student spaces per resident in the South Fraser region from 2014 through to 2025.

An advocacy paper released by the organization this month cites B.C.’s Labour Market Outlook for 2010 to 2020, which estimates 78 per cent of the expected employment openings will require a university degree or some post-secondary education (including trades training).

But in 2011, only 62 per cent of Surrey’s workforce had any post-secondary education, compared with 71 per cent in the rest of Metro Vancouver.

Without additional spaces, the paper says “B.C.’s most populous and fastest-growing region may not be capable of harnessing its potential to become a social and economic powerhouse.”

Huberman noted one of her boat-building clients has had to look overseas for labour because they can’t find workers locally.

“They’re looking as far as Russia, Serbia, China, India, wherever,” she said. “When the provincial government is funding seats for the post-secondary sector, they need to be taking a look at what it is that businesses need and focus on those training programs.

“We have the capacity here at Kwantlen and SFU to provide that training but we need the funding from the provincial government.”

Kwantlen Polytechnic spokeswoman Joanne Saunders said Kwantlen is “pretty much continually filled,” yet the demand continues to rise. She expects in the next 15 years that demand for trades programs, such as plumbing, welding and appliances, will be huge as those doing the jobs now retire from the workforce.

“These are areas in high demand now,” she said. “In the past 20 years, all the young people going to school wanted to learn about computers and technology stuff and we’re really lacking in these areas like appliance repair ... nobody knows how to do that anymore. We’re really in need of those professionals out there.

“If you look at the growth in our area, Surrey in particular, if you look at the trends and where the population is growing, it makes sense to push for more post-secondary.”

Hybrid learning

Kwantlen president Dr. Alan Davis acknowledges there has been a shortage of investment in post-secondary seats south of the Fraser, which has led young people to travel to institutions in other municipalities. But he expects that will change as Surrey develops into a “full service city” and the demand increases for a variety of courses.

Kwantlen, which he describes as “Surrey’s university” already has 12,000 students, and he hopes to get the funding to double the capacity of the Newton campus.

A blend of “hybrid learning,” including online courses, will be offered at all campuses, he said, while Kwantlen will focus on providing advanced technology — both high-tech and green tech — classes at the Cloverdale campus and new science and business classes in Newton.

“It’s an opportunity,” he said. “We’re thinking fairly broadly and we’re thinking big. We want to match the opportunities Surrey presents.”

Davis noted for too long, Vancouver got most of the attention, with “everything just getting crammed into the downtown.

“Surrey always put forward a strong case ... and it was ignored in some ways,” he said.

“That’s just flipped now. I have to hand it to the city of Surrey and Mayor Dianne Watts, who are saying ‘we’re going to be a great city.’ They can’t be ignored anymore.”

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Surrey’s universities

SFU Surrey: 2,500 full-time equivalent students: applied sciences, arts and social sciences, business administration, communication, art and technology, education, health sciences, mathematics and sciences.

Kwantlen Polytechnic's Cloverdale campus: 1,157 full-time equivalent students in trades and technology. Campus is also home to public safety communications 911 and drafting programs.

Kwantlen Polytechnic's Surrey campus: 5,063 full-time equivalent students, registered in the school of business, the faculty of arts and the faculty of science.