The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is a small, research-intensive public university in British Columbia, Canada. The main campus is located in Prince George, British Columbia. UNBC also has regional campuses in northern British Columbia in Prince Rupert, Terrace, Quesnel, and Fort St. John. The enabling legislation is the University of Northern British Columbia Act 1996. In the 2019–20 academic year, 3,570 students were enrolled at UNBC.
UNBC is ranked as the number one university of its size in Canada in the Primarily Undergraduate category by Maclean’s. UNBC also finished first in the rankings in 2015 and 2016 and routinely finishes in the top three in its category.
In 2007, the university obtained the trademark for “Canada’s Green University”. Because of its northern latitude, UNBC is a member of the University of the Arctic.
Campus
The Prince George campus is located on Cranbrook Hill, overlooking the city of Prince George from the west, and is widely renowned for its innovative architecture. The award-winning Wood Innovation and Design Centre, designed by Michael Green Architecture, was the world’s tallest modern all-timber structure upon completion and serves as a facility for the research and education on the uses of wood. The Wood Innovation Research Lab is an example of Passive House design in a northern climate.
The separate buildings are linked by an agora that is partially below ground level. It is the efficient heating system connected to all the core campus buildings that permits UNBC to pursue its goal of heating the university by the gasification of clean-burning, renewable wood pellets collected from the waste of pine trees killed by the mountain pine beetle epidemic.
The buildings at UNBC are designed to represent the northern landscape. The Canfor Winter Garden area has a flowing blue staircase below a ceiling of wooden lattices, representing the west coast rain forests. The cafeteria has a lighthouse design that represents the rugged coastline of northern British Columbia. Another structural feature, a pair of triangular glass peaks, represents mountains and functions as skylights above the UNBC Bookstore.
On October 13, 2010, UNBC was co-awarded the Campus Sustainability Leadership Award by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) for its bio-energy project, which targets a reduction in fossil fuel use by supplying 85% of the heating needs at UNBC.
University Hospital of Northern British Columbia
The University Hospital of Northern British Columbia is a Level III trauma centre in Northern BC.