UBC’s Okanagan campus is putting a plan in action to expand academic and residential facilities to cover the next 20 years of growth — preparing for the potential doubling of its population.
UBCO opened in 2005 with 3,000 students and currently has a population of around 8,500.
After the initial round of buildings was completed in 2012, UBCO realized that they were without a concrete plan going forward. The continuing increase of student population opened up the need for future, long-term planning — so in 2013, a lengthy two-year process was started to set the groundwork for future expansion.
“We’re not planning to double in size, but set the parameters for planning,” said the UBC Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Okanagan campus, Deborah Buszard.
The plan may cover the next 20 years, but there are some changes that are necessary immediately. The UBCO library originally opened in 2005 as designed for 3,000 students, and has not been expanded since then despite the sizeable increase of the campus population.
Along with the library, a lecture hall suitable for large class sizes is also needed. It’s come to the administration’s attention that there is no classroom big enough for some larger first-year classes, necessitating multiple sections of the same class.
In response, a plan for expanding the library and creating additional flexible learning space is in development right now, and is on its way to getting sufficient funding and Board approval. Students voted 2 years ago by referendum to contribute $10 million to the cost of that expansion.
Funding for the entire project is coming from philanthropic funds and student tuition fees. UBCO has also put in three requests for a $2 billion federal infrastructure fund.
With an increasing student population, the Okanagan campus is also aiming to offer a more diverse selection of courses for its students.
“To offer good program and diversity, you need to have a significant number of professors and we can only reach the number of professors we would like to have by having sufficient students in the program,” said Buszard.
As this is a long term plan, no immediate initiatives to do any construction work are underway.
“I think it’s the most exciting thing happening in Canadian post secondary education,” said Buszard. “And I think that no university other than UBC would have the capacity to do this.”
With files from Samantha McCabe