University Canada West closed its Victoria campus with students in the middle of classes
After the closure of its Victoria campus, University Canada West students have been left scrambling to transfer to other institutions. The private university, which is recognized and accredited by the B.C. government, closed the campus last month and informed students that they could directly transfer to the Vancouver campus.
Two students, Josey Reynolds and Ricki Petersen, who started their degree programs just last semester told CBC News how they received notice of the closure the day after the deadline for withdrawing from classes without financial penalty. “To me, its just totally unethical to sign up people for a two-year degree and not follow through,” Petersen said.
Both students were financing their studies through publicly funded government loans, and do not wish to move to Vancouver. Instead they would prefer to transfer to Camosum College, but there is concern over how much of their UCW credits they will be able to transfer.
CBC further reported that after they had made inquiries, a spokesman for Eminata, the company that owns UCW, confirmed that the school will aid the students in completing their programs. “We will do right by the students. We will do what it takes to support them in either their transferability of their credits — whatever we need to do to help them with that,” Royden Trainor said. Trainor also said that students will be credited for courses they did not complete due to the closure.