MESSAGE FROM THE KPU FOUNDATION CEO

You may remember from Page 13 of our Foundation report last year that student support is not keeping up with assessed need. For example, in 2019/20 KPU and the KPU Foundation were able to disburse more than $22.7 Million to students in need, thanks to our generous donors and funds from Student Aid BC. And while the amount is very impressive for an institution and Foundation of our size, our students still needed an additional $11.8 Million in financial support.

I was hoping to give you some better news and numbers in this year’s report, but as you can likely imagine, Covid and its related impacts have pushed student need for financial support to unprecedented levels. In 2021/22 the unmet need for bursaries was $2.4 Million and an additional $16 Million in government loans and grants was also needed by students. In other words, KPU students needed an additional $18.4 Million last year in funding that they simply had to find through other means. Not exactly an easy task, considering students were some of the hardest hit people during the height of the pandemic.

That is why we need and appreciate every single one of our donors now more than ever.

Thank you all so much for helping KPU students reach their educational, career and life goals. I look forward to working with all of you over the coming years to reduce the unmet need gap and help even more students in the future.