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Tuesday 25 October 2011

UBC governance and academics




The administration of UBC, as mandated by the University Act, is composed of a chancellor, convocation, board, senate, and faculties of the university. The Board of Governors is responsible for the management of property and revenue, while the Senate is vested with managing the academic operation of the university. Both are composed of faculty and students who are elected to the position. Degrees and diplomas are conferred by the convocation, which is composed of alumni, administrators, and faculty, with a quorum of twenty members. UBC also has a President, who is a chief executive officer of the university and a member of the Senate, Board of Governors, Convocation, and also serves as Vice Chancellor. The President of the University is responsible for managing the academic operation of the university, including recommending appointments, calling meetings of faculties, and establishing committees.




Faculties and Schools of the University of British Columbia


UBC's academic activity is organized into "faculties" and "schools". Currently, UBC has twelve faculties and eleven schools on its Vancouver campus and eight faculties. UBC Vancouver has two academic colleges: Interdisciplinary Studies and Health Disciplines, while UBC Okanagan has a College of Graduate Studies. At the Vancouver campus, the Faculty of Arts, which dates back to the 1915 Fairview Campus, is the largest faculty with twenty departments and schools. With the split of the Faculty of Arts and Science in 1964, the Faculty of Science is the second largest faculty with nine departments. The Sauder School of Business is UBC's Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration.




Enrolment


In 2010, UBC had 3,694 full-time Faculty, and 9,727 non-faculty employees. It had over fifty thousand students (44,496 undergraduate students and 9,629 graduate students), and more than 250,000 alumni in 120 countries. ). The university is one of only two Canadian universities to have membership in Universitas 21, an international association of research-led institutions (McGill University is the other). and the only Canadian member of the prestigious Association of Pacific Rim Universities, a consortium of 42 leading research universities in the Pacific Rim.






Quality of education


UBC consistently ranks as one of the top three Canadian universities by Research InfoSource[39] and ranks twenty-second in the world (second in Canada) in the 2011 Times Higher Education World University Rankings and thirty-seventh in the world (second in Canada) in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World Universities.[40] In 2006, Newsweek magazine ranked the University of British Columbia second in Canada and 27th in the world. The 2011 QS World University Rankings ranked UBC as 51st in the world ( QS recently split from a joint world university rankings study with the Times Higher Education). According to Maclean's University Rankings, UBC has the highest percentage of Ph. D level professors among all public universities in North America (92%). It has received widespread recognition by Maclean's and Newsweek magazines for its foreign language program; the Chinese program is North America's largest, and the Japanese program is North America's second largest (after the University of Hawaii). The Department of Economics as well as the Engineering Department are constantly ranked top 20 in the world. In 2003 the National Post stated that UBC had the highest entrance requirements for undergraduate admission out of all universities in Canada.




Research centres and institutes


UBC, with a research budget among the top three among Canadian universities, runs many research centres and institutions. UBC operates the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on Vancouver Island for research biologists, ecologists and oceanographers. As a founding member of the Western Canadian Universities Marine Sciences Society, UBC maintains this field station on the west coast of Vancouver Island, which is jointly run by the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. The Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies is an interdisciplinary research institute for fundamental research in the Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities. The UBC Farm is a 24 hectare learning and research farm located in UBC's South Campus area is the only working farmland within the city of Vancouver. The farm features Saturday Farm Markets from early June until early October, selling organic produce and eggs to the community.




TRIUMF


TRIUMF is Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics located at UBC. The name was formerly an acronym for TRI-University Meson Facility, but TRIUMF is now owned and operated by a consortium of eleven Canadian universities. The consortium runs TRIUMF through a contribution of funds from the National Research Council of Canada, and makes TRIUMF’s facilities available to Canadian scientists and to scientists from around the world. TRIUMF also houses the world's largest cyclotron.




Aboriginal


The UBC’s Longhouse is a dedicated space for Aboriginal institutions, a “zone of comfort” for Aboriginal students and a focus for Aboriginal culture and activities on campus. UBC has an Associate Dean of Indigenous Education and offers degrees in First Nations Studies through a program in the Arts Faculty. The UBC’s First Nations Forestry Initiatives was developed in partnership with specific Aboriginal communities to meet specific needs within more remote Aboriginal communities. UBC also offers a Chinook Diploma Program in the Sauder School of Business. UBC also runs the Chinook Summer Biz Camp, which seeks fosters entrepreneurship among First Nations and Métis high school students. UBC hosts a Bridge Through Sport Program, Summer Science Program, Native Youth Program, and Cedar Day Camp and Afterschool Program. UBC has had success in recruiting and retaining Aboriginal faculty. UBC developed governing board and senate policies as well as Aboriginal governed councils within the university structure.




Finances


For 2006–2007, UBC had expected a $36 million deficit. With various cost cutting measures, the University posted a small surplus of $1.92 million. As of March 2007, UBC had assets of $3.2 billion and liabilities of $1.8 billion. Total revenue for 2006–2007 was $1.59 billion, of which 36% came from the provincial government, 11% from the federal government, 17% from "sales of goods and services", 18% from tuition, and 18% from all other sources. Total expenses were $1.50 billion, of which salaries, wages, benefits, and honoraria were 59%, office supplies and expenses were 12%, amortization was 9%, and all other expenses were 20%. Less than 1% of expenses went to fundraising.




Tuition


In 2001–02, UBC had one of the lowest undergraduate tuition rates in Canada, at an average of $2,181 CAD per year for a full-time programme. This was due to a government-instituted tuition freeze. In 2001, however, the BC Liberal party defeated the NDP in British Columbia and lifted the tuition freeze. In 2002–03 undergraduate and graduate tuition rose by an average of 30%, and by up to 40% in some faculties. This has led to better facilities, but also to student unrest and contributed to a teaching assistant union strike.
UBC again increased tuition by 30% in the 2003–04 year, again by approximately 15% in the 2004–05 season, and 2% in the 2005–06 and 2006–07 years. Increases were lower than expected because, in the 2005 Speech from the Throne, the government announced that tuition increases would be capped to inflation. Despite these increases, UBC's tuition remains below the national average and below other universities in the regions. In 2006–07, the Canadian average undergraduate tuition fee was $4,347 and the BC average was $4,960.




Undergraduate tuition


UBC tuition for 2007–2008 was $4,257 for a Canadian student in a basic 30-unit program, though various programs cost from $3,406 to $9,640. Tuition for international students is significantly higher (2.3–4.6 times higher than domestic students). In 2009, tuition for international students ranged from $16,245 CAD to $25,721 CAD.




Graduate tuition


The majority of the more than 250 graduate degree programs at UBC have a very low tuition fee compared to other Canadian institutions or universities around the world with similar reputation. In the academic year 2011/2012 most research-based graduate programs assess tuition of $4,263.87 per year for Canadian students and permanent residents or $7,490.88 for international students.. International Students without any external funding that meet the general eligibility criteria will be supported with guaranteed funding of up to $3,200 per year. Tuition for professional Master's programs varies.



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