University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia, commonly referred to as UBC, is a public research university with campuses and facilities in British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1908 as the McGill University College of British Columbia, the University became independent and adopted its current name in 1915. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in British Columbia and enrolls over 58,000 students at its Vancouver and Okanagan Valley campuses. UBC's 4.02 km2 (993-acre) Vancouver campus is located within the University Endowment Lands, about 10 km (6 mi) west of Downtown Vancouver.The 2.09 km2 (516-acre) Okanagan campus, acquired in 2005, is located in Kelowna.

The University offers degrees and diplomas in over 300 fields of study, and in 2014 granted 12,421 degrees. Most students are enrolled in five larger Faculties, namely Arts, Science, Medicine, Applied Science and the Sauder School of Business. UBC exhibits very high research activity, and with a research budget valued at $564 million, funds 8,442 projects as of 2014. UBC is the home of several notable scholarships, including the Schulich Scholarship for STEM fields, the Donald A. Wehrung International Student Award for scholars from war-torn countries, and the International Leader of Tomorrow Award for outstanding international scholars.

One the largest research libraries in Canada, the UBC Library system contains over seven million volumes among its 21 branches and is considered one of the most prolific in North America. Since 1968, UBC is home to TRIUMF, which is

Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics and houses the world's largest cyclotron. Other facilities are also among the best in their class, such as the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, regarded as one of North America's premier performing arts centres, the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, which contains more than 2 million items in its collection, and the Museum of Anthropology, which houses more than 535,000 artifacts.

The University is consistently ranked among the three most reputable in Canada, among the top 25 in North America, and among the top 50 worldwide. UBC also ranks among the 20 best public universities in the world, and according to Macleans has the second highest average undergraduate entering grade among Canadian universities. Faculty, alumni, and researchers have won seven Nobel Prizes, 69 Rhodes Scholarships, 65 Olympic medals, 195 fellowships to the Royal Society of Canada. The University has also educated three Canadian prime ministers, most recently Justin Trudeau, the incumbent.

In 1877, just six years after British Columbia joined Canada, Superintendent of Education John Jessop presented a proposition for the arrangement of a commonplace college. An Act Respecting the University of British Columbia was gone by the commonplace council in 1890, however differences emerged about whether to construct the college on Vancouver Island or the territory. A common college was formally called into being by the British Columbia University Act of 1908, in spite of the fact that its area was not yet specified. The administration was displayed on the commonplace University of Toronto Act of 1906 which set up a bicameral arrangement of college government comprising of a senate (workforce), in charge of scholarly approach, and a leading group of governors (nationals) practicing restrictive control over monetary strategy and having formal power in every single other matter. The president, designated by the board, was to give a connection between the two bodies and to perform institutional leadership. The Act constituted a twenty-one part senate with Francis Carter-Cotton of Vancouver as Chancellor.

Prior to the University Act, there had been a few endeavors at setting up a degree-conceding college with help from the Universities of Toronto and McGill. Columbian College in New Westminster, through its alliance with Victoria College of the University of Toronto, started to offer college level credit when the new century rolled over, however it was McGill that would come to overwhelm advanced education in the mid 1900s. 

Expanding on an effective association in the middle of Vancouver and Victoria secondary schools with McGill University, Henry Marshall Tory built up the McGill University College of British Columbia. From 1906 to 1915 McGill BC (as it was called) worked as a private organization giving the initial couple of years toward a degree at McGill University or somewhere else. The Henry Marshall Tory Medal was built up in 1941 by Tory, establishing President of the University of Alberta and of the National Research Council of Canada, and a prime supporter of Carleton University.