UNBC Getting New Engineering Programs

The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is welcoming a full civil and environmental engineering program alongside $3.5 million for new learning facilities.

Melanie Mark, B.C.’s Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training, made the announcement at UNBC.  “For more than a decade, students, communities and elected officials in the north have been calling for an engineering program in the region,” said Mark during the announcement. “Northern students were uprooting their lives at considerable costs and going south to finish their degrees.”

Starting in September 2019, UNBC students will start the first full civil and environmental engineering degree program in the North.

“But you can’t get your dream job without 21st-century facilities and that’s why today I am thrilled to be announcing $3.5 million in capital funding to create new engineering spaces right here at UNBC.”

The capital funding of $3.5 million will help UNBC increase its use of existing classroom space and teaching laboratories, and create a centralized collaboration space for the new programs.

In January 2018, the province announced funding for new civil and environmental engineering degree programs, which will ramp up to a total of 280 additional spaces at UNBC by 2022-23, with 70 graduates per year expected by 2023.

About 30,000 engineers are currently working in B.C., and nearly 12,000 job openings are forecasted over the next 10 years.

Of those projected openings, about 7,300 of them will be to replace retiring engineers.

Read full announcement from PrinceGeorgeMatters.com