Students hoping to head to Kwantlen Polytechnic University have until December 1 to make their application… unless, that is, they’re coming from India.
The spring semester application deadline for prospective students from that country was moved ahead by nearly three months this year, to September 15.
School administrators say the move was necessary due to an unusually high number of applications from the South Asian country.
“We had an unprecedented, unexpected and surprising influx of applicants from India,” said Sal Ferreras, Kwantlen’s Vice President, Academic.
“Kwantlen University is always aimed at developing students’ global competencies, and as a part of that we aim to maintain the diversity of our domestic and international populations.”
Indian students only learned of the change in date one week before the arrival of the new deadline.
But Ferreras said the change doesn’t discriminate against Indian students.
“We already have hundreds of students from India in this intake. So if the concern is that we’re not accepting students from India, it’s unfounded because that’s not in fact true at all,” he said.
“We’re still seeing a large number of students from India, we’re just trying to stem the flow, rather than stop the flow.”
Despite the move, Kwantlen said it expects the proportion of applicants from India to grow for this year’s intake.