While Capilano University is not offering the wilderness leadership course in Squamish, the university says it is not cancelling the program.
The plan is to put the intake of students for the fall on hold, says Capilano vice-president, academic and provost Rich Gale.
The university is developing new programs in adventure tourism that would include the wilderness leadership program as a component.
“That will be a feature of the adventure tourism baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate,” he said. “It’s kind of a rebuilding process for us.”
Incoming students received notice in February that the advanced wilderness leadership certificate program would not be operating in the fall, following a decision at university budget meetings. The email noted the decision still had to be officially confirmed this month.
It also referred students to the university’s outdoor recreation diploma at the North Vancouver campus, although this program is more focussed on management and less on outdoor skills.
Capilano’s communications department confirmed the university has been working over the past year to “rejuvenate and reposition” outdoor recreation programming in order to align with students’ needs and the needs of the provincial economy.
As well, it also confirmed the students currently enrolled will be able to finish courses.
Capilano had been at a larger site on Carson Place in Squamish before moving to the downtown space on Winnipeg Street. Until now, the site has been used for both the wilderness leadership program and business courses.
Like many post-secondary institutions, the university has faced cutbacks to programs in recent years, such as in June 2013 when the board of governors approved cuts to a number of programs and suspended some courses.
Gale, though, is optimistic that the program in Squamish will only grow, along with the adventure tourism industry.
“What we’re really hoping is to capitalize on Squamish as the adventure capital of Canada,” he said. “I won’t say we’re on the cutting edge, but we’re right in front of most tourism programs.”
The plan is to begin accepting applications in the fall, with the aim of starting in January 2017. Capilano will start with the post-baccalaureate program for students with a degree in another field before building a bachelor’s program.
“It’s a very popular international program,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of students across the world asking for a program like this.”
The plan, for now, will be to use the current Squamish facility, but the university will have to look at whether to expand or find new space in the future, depending on student enrolment. “We’re going to be sticking with the downtown site through the next academic year,” he said.
Gale also said the institution envisions the program eventually at least doubling or tripling the number of students working in outdoor tourism in the Sea to Sky Corridor.
He thinks the new programs will attract more, as he said the university has found students are not simply interested in short-term certification programs but also in pursuing longer-term baccalaureate programs.
“We have seen from our projections that that’s where the growth is going to be,” Gale said. “My belief, based on the numbers that I’ve seen, is that we’re going to have more students heading to Squamish every year for the next several years.”
