UBC Reports | Vol. 55 | No. 5 | May
7, 2009
It’s been six decades since UBC’s School of Human Kinetics graduated its first class of 38 students, most of them Second World War veterans whose tuition was paid by the federal government.
This May, 196 students will graduate from the school that’s grown from a physical education program to a discipline devoted to a comprehensive and systematic study of movement behaviour.
The program began in 1936 as the Department of Physical Education, with intramurals and a voluntary physical education program. By 1945, all undergrads were required to take two years of physical education classes in sports and dance.
In 1946, the department offered Western Canada’s first four-year degree program in P.E., and in 1949 graduated its first class.
Canada’s first masters of physical education followed, before the school moved under the umbrella of the Faculty of Education in 1963.
The curriculum changed a number of times throughout the years, and in 1987 students could choose from seven different programs. Two years later the school introduced its first enrolment restrictions to curb a flood of applications.
By 1994, the school was re-named the School of Human Kinetics, offering a bachelor and master’s degree in Human Kinetics, as well as a PhD, M.Sc. and M.A.
