Associate of Arts - Psychology

The Associate of Arts - Psychology is a two-year credential that delivers the first half of a psychology degree as a standalone qualification, with guaranteed transferability into the full bachelor’s.

Students take the psychology foundation — introductory psychology, research methods, statistics, developmental, social and abnormal psychology — alongside the breadth requirements of a BC arts degree: English composition and literature, a laboratory science, quantitative reasoning, and humanities and social science electives. That structure is deliberate: the Associate of Arts is built to the BC Transfer Guide, so credits move cleanly into CapU’s own BA or into UBC, SFU and UVic.

For international students the appeal is cost and optionality. Two years at CapU tuition is materially cheaper than two years at a research university, and the decision about where to finish the degree can be deferred until a Canadian academic record exists. The trade-off is real, though: as a non-degree credential it does not carry the bachelor’s exemption from PGWP field-of-study rules.

CapU is a fully public teaching university on Vancouver’s North Shore — a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19280078102) with university status since 2008. Classes are small, faculty teach rather than delegate to assistants, and tuition sits well below the big Vancouver research universities while the credential carries the same public-institution standing.

Its field maps to CIP 42.0101 (Psychology, general). Important: this is a non-degree credential, so unlike CapU’s bachelor’s programs it is not exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction — eligibility depends on this CIP field appearing on IRCC’s current eligible list at the time you apply. Confirm the live list with an Apply Study Visa counsellor before committing. Final decisions rest with IRCC.