KPU has a new chancellor. What does a chancellor actually do?
Harry Bains took over as Kwantlen Polytechnic University's chancellor on October 28. The job has a doorkeeper's name, a three-year term written into provincial law, a seat on two governing bodies and no executive power. Here is how it works, and who has held it.
The word comes from the Latin cancellarius, a doorkeeper, which is a modest origin for a title that now gets its own velvet robe. KPU points this out on its own chancellor page, and it is a fair summary of the modern job: the chancellor stands at the door of the university on its biggest days and welcomes people through it. On October 28, Harry Bains, the former Surrey-Newton MLA, became the fourth person to hold the title at Kwantlen Polytechnic University since it became a university in 2008. Since the Langley campus on the Langley Bypass is the one most of us drive past, here is what the role is, how it is filled, and who has had it.
The job
The chancellor is the ceremonial head of the university. The visible part is convocation: KPU holds ceremonies in February and June at its Surrey campus, and the chancellor presides and confers the credentials on each graduating class. The rest of the year the chancellor is an ambassador, showing up for the university in the community and with donors.
It is not an executive job. KPU’s own call for nominations this summer put it plainly: the role has “no independent executive authority.” The person who runs the place day to day is the president, whose formal title is President and Vice-Chancellor. What the chancellor does have is a vote. At KPU the chancellor sits on both the Board of Governors, which handles money and property, and the Senate, which handles academic matters, so the role is more than cutting ribbons, if less than running things.
How someone gets it
This part is written into provincial law. Section 11 of the BC University Act says every public university must have a chancellor, appointed by the board on the nomination of the alumni association and after consulting the senate. The term is three years, the chancellor stays on until a successor is named, and reappointment is allowed, but nobody can serve more than six consecutive years. The chancellor cannot be an employee of any university. If the office falls vacant early, section 12 says the replacement serves out the rest of the term.
KPU’s process in 2026 followed that script. The Alumni Association opened nominations in the spring with a deadline of July 17, listing what it wanted: a commitment to higher education, standing in the community, a real connection to KPU, a record of philanthropy in the communities the university serves, and enough time to actually do the job. A joint committee of the board, the senate and the Alumni Association reviewed the names, and the board made the appointment.
KPU’s four chancellors
Kwantlen was a college until 2008, so the list is short.
Arvinder Bubber, October 2008 to October 2014. A chartered accountant who came to BC in 1991 and opened an accounting practice in Surrey, Bubber had been on Kwantlen’s board since 2001 and chaired it from 2002 to 2007. He presided over the first convocation KPU held as a university, served two three-year terms, and in 2003 helped found the SPARK Education Foundation, which works with the Surrey school district and KPU to keep students facing financial or cultural barriers on track for post-secondary.
George Melville, installed October 1, 2014. The former chairman and owner of Boston Pizza International, Melville had sat on KPU’s board for six years from 2003 and chaired its audit committee through the college-to-university transition. He and his wife gave $500,000 in 2012 to create the Melville Centre for Dialogue at the Richmond campus, and both of his children studied at KPU. He also served two consecutive terms.
Kim Baird, October 19, 2020 to October 2026. A KPU graduate herself: Baird graduated from Kwantlen with an Arts diploma in 1992, was elected chief of the Tsawwassen First Nation at 28 and served six terms, from 1999 to 2012, negotiating BC’s first urban modern treaty, which took effect on April 3, 2009. She holds the Order of BC and the Order of Canada. KPU reappointed her in June 2023 for a second three-year term, and she finished at the six-year limit this fall.
Harry Bains, from October 28, 2026. Bains came to Canada from India in 1971, went to work in a Vancouver sawmill and spent 15 years in leadership with Steelworkers-IWA Local 2171 before 19 years as MLA for Surrey-Newton, the riding that holds KPU’s main campus; he was the province’s labour minister from 2017 and stepped down from the legislature in 2024. His KPU connection is older than his political one: he sat on the university’s board for six years in the 1990s, three of them as vice-chair, and KPU gave him an honorary Doctor of Laws in 2025. The next convocation ceremonies are in February.
Why a Langley reader might care
KPU’s Langley campus is home to its horticulture labs and greenhouses, nursing simulation labs and the teaching brewery, so a share of the graduates crossing the Surrey stage each June studied here, and the board the chancellor votes on is the same one that decides what gets built and funded on the Bypass. If someone in your house is graduating this year, the chancellor is the person who will shake their hand; KPU’s attending convocation page has the practical details, and the ceremony schedule is posted about eight weeks out.
For the other university in town, see our Trinity Western University page.