For all of its challenges and flaws, Quest University is a ground-breaking institution that Squamish is lucky to claim as its own.
Full disclosure, my son attends Quest. He’s in his second year and is ideally suited to its style of education — studying one topic at a time for three hours a day, in three week-long rotations with a maximum of 20 students per class.
To be clear, Quest is not for everyone.
It offers one degree, a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences, and it recently dropped its varsity sports program — so for many, it won’t be an appropriate option. It is also expensive. Because it is independent, it doesn’t receive federal or provincial funding, thus students face tuition of about $35,000 this year. Yikes, I know. The price tag is misleading though as many students get substantial scholarships, grants, and bursaries. Still, not a semester goes by that our family doesn’t consider selling our car to cover the fees and our son has to work several jobs.
Also, Quest professors (they call themselves tutors) depend on students taking charge of their learning; there is no handholding here. Quest suits students who are passionate about education and comfortable being challenged by faculty and other students.
It also has its share of issues that its administration must address, many of which have been chronicled in The Chief’s pages. It is millions in debt, for example.
But it is shocking how many Squamish residents don’t know about or don’t appreciate what is just up the hill: Quest is Canada’s first independent, not-for-profit, secular university. That is a pretty cool claim to fame for Squamish.
It opened with 73 students in 2007 and this year boasts about 700.
The ways students are encouraged to think is different from at a typical university. The best way to explain it is to tell you about a Quest grad who interned with us at The Chief. He wanted to get into media, he said.
While for most that would mean planning to be a reporter or TV anchor, his vision was to create a new kind of media company. He wasn’t afraid to start at the bottom and learn all he could, but he thought bigger and outside the box.
Critical thinking and approaching problems from unique angles are the aims at Quest. That can’t help but be valuable in a world and workforce that is changing like the weather.
The coolest thing though is that students from across Canada and around the world attend Quest. The education gained from studying and living — almost all students live on campus — with people from other cultures and backgrounds is worth as much as the academics.
About half of Quest students are from outside Canada.
Like other universities, Quest also offers plenty of workshops, courses, and events open to the public.
The school deserves a little more local attention and praise than it gets in its hometown.
