Put the “poly” back in polytechnic, says former uWaterloo VP

Thomas Carey, a former University of Waterloo Associate VP and current Visiting Senior Scholar at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, writes in Inside Higher Ed that polytechnic universities must build on their history of “valuing different ways of knowing” to successfully position themselves in today’s postsecondary landscape. In this sense, he advocates for a return to the “poly” or “many” aspect of these institutions’ heritage while also emphasizing the craft and professional knowledge implied in “technic.” Carey goes on to investigate what he finds to be both the positive and negative aspects of current efforts to rebrand polytechnic institutions across North America. Inside Higher Ed