Kwantlen College was formed in 1981, by a separation of the South Fraser campus from Douglas College. There were more than 200 suggestions in a contest to name the new South Fraser region college. The winning entry “Kwantlen” was submitted by Stan McKinnon. “Kwantlen” comes from the name of the Kwantlen First Nation in whose traditional territory the university is located. Chief Joe Gabriel of the Kwantlen First Nation gave permission for the college to use the Kwantlen name.
Following a provincial government initiative designed to increase access to degree programs in British Columbia, begun in 1988, five community colleges were granted authority to offer baccalaureate degrees. These five institutions— Cariboo, Fraser Valley, Kwantlen, Malaspina, and Okanagan—were renamed university colleges. Initially, they offered degrees under the aegis of one or more of the three provincial universities. In 1995 they were awarded the authority to offer degrees in their own right. Also in 1995, the province of British Columbia enacted legislation changing the institution's name to Kwantlen University College.
Kwantlen is involved in three major building expansion projects. The first expansion is underway on Kwantlen's main Surrey campus, where constructing a new wing aims to increase the building size by 11,000 m², or by 42% of its current size.
The second project is the construction of a new campus in Cloverdale, a 17,200 m² building designed replace the aging Newton campus, and capable of holding over twice the amount of students. The first phase of this campus opened in January 2007.
The third project is an expansion of the Richmond campus library. The University received $1.215-million of federal and provincial funding to help take better advantage of 3,139 sq ft (291.6 m2) of unused space. The plan calls for an increase in study rooms, computers, and archives space. The project is expected to be completed in July of 2010