The creation of a private liberal arts & science university in Squamish, BC came as a surprise when I read about it in Maclean’s. Quest University Canada http://www.questu.ca/ , founded by a former president of the University of British Columbia, is now under construction and is preparing to hire faculty to open in September 2007. With a liberal arts curriculum and <1000 undergraduate students, its mission seems a lot like Murray Ross’s and Escott Reid’s vision for Glendon College when they founded it in 1966. Making Quest distinct, however, is its independent status, i.e. not part of a comprehensive mega university, and its private provenance. Maclean’s reports that its endowment, beneficiary of one donation of over $30 million, is growing quickly and Quest hopes to offer student financial assistance that will reduce of the cost of the $25-30,000 annual tuition to the range of public universities in Canada.
