UNBC announces multi-million dollar Engineering investment from Province

The University of Northern B.C. has been handed $3.5 million to go towards upgrading and renovating its engineering space on campus.

With the funding coming as a provincial investment, Melanie Mark, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training, was on hand to make the announcement, which will help UNBC increase its use of existing classroom space and teaching laboratories, as well as creating a centralized collaboration space for programs starting in September of this year.

Minister of Advanced Education, Melanie Mark announces $3.5-million in new engineering spaces at @UNBC. pic.twitter.com/7L68GT16os

— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) March 18, 2019

“This is monumental,” Lucia Dekleer, a UNBC environmental student told MyPGNow. “This gives us an opportunity to congregate, learn, share ideas, study, and hang out as engineering students.”

The Province previously announced funding, back in January of 2018, for new civil and environmental engineering degree programs, which is expected to have an additional 280 additional students by 2022-23 with 70 graduates per year.

UNBC President, Daniel Weeks says the funding is a substantial step forward for the program, which — up until now — has seen students spend two years of their studies at UNBC, completing their other two years in Vancouver at the University of British Columbia.

“This will allow us to develop the spaces, the laboratories, and the learning spaces that they’ll need to be able to stay here for their entire engineering program,” Weeks said. “So it’s a very big deal. It means that students that want to take engineering here in the north can stay for their degree, and hopefully stay on and open companies of their own, or work with other major companies in the region.”

Dekleer adds that the introduction of a four-year degree program will benefit students, particularly those who are initially from the region.

“The addition of the four-year program here is great because a lot of people in the north don’t have the funds to go to UBC, pay UBC tuitions, and put themselves up in Vancouver for two years,” said Dekleer. “Having an opportunity to study for four years at UNBC for Engineering is super important. It makes sense economically.”

Originally hailing from Vancouver, Dekleer spoke fondly of the faculty-student relationship found at UNBC, stating it creates a positive impact on the overall learning experience.

“With the design of the new programs, the design of new space, our student input has been valued to the highest degree.”

The funding comes as UNBC supports the government’s CleanBC strategy to reduce climate pollution and boost energy-efficient solutions, while also improving British Columbian’s quality of life.

As the program will see more students on the campus of UNBC, Weeks says the possibility of additional facilities is quite realistic.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Weeks said of the new four-year program. “We’d like to add other forms of engineering to this over time, and as it grows — you never know — new facilities on our campus could be a very real possibility later on down the road.”