The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia‘s oldest university. The university ranks among the top three universities in Canada. With an annual research budget of $759 million, UBC funds over 8,000 projects a year.
The Vancouver campus is situated adjacent to the University Endowment Lands located about 10 km (6 mi) west of downtown Vancouver. UBC is home to TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, which houses the world’s largest cyclotron. In addition to the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and Stuart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, UBC and the Max Planck Society collectively established the first Max Planck Institute in North America, specializing in quantum materials. One of the largest research libraries in Canada, the UBC Library system has over 9.9 million volumes among its 21 branches. The Okanagan campus, acquired in 2005, is located in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Eight Nobel laureates, 74 Rhodes scholars, 65 Olympians garnering medals, ten fellows in both American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Royal Society, and 273 fellows to the Royal Society of Canada have been affiliated with UBC. Three Canadian prime ministers, including Canada’s first female prime minister, Kim Campbell, and current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, have been educated at UBC.
The University of British Columbia has ranked in a number of post-secondary rankings. In the 2021 Academic Ranking of World Universities rankings, the university ranked 42nd in the world and second in Canada. The 2023 QS World University Rankings ranked the University 47th in the world, and third in Canada. The 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked the University 37th in the world, and second in Canada. In the 2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Global University Ranking, the university ranked 35th in the world and second in Canada. The Canadian-based Maclean’s magazine ranked the University of British Columbia third in their 2022 Canadian Medical Doctoral University category, and second in their reputation rankings. The university was ranked in spite of having opted out – along with several other universities in Canada – of participating in Maclean’s graduate survey since 2006. In Newsweek‘s 2011 global university rankings, the university was ranked eighth among institutions outside the United States and second in Canada.
Along with academic and research-based rankings, the university has also been ranked by publications that evaluate the employment prospects of its graduates. In the Times Higher Education’s 2021 global employability ranking, the university ranked 26th in the world and second in Canada.