“additions” training? Is that a Math course?

should this be a community college course??

As usual UNBC is quick to put out press release’s that indicate they are doing a great job.

Strange that they are somewhat less in a hurry to report on the number of FTE enrolments for 2012, or the decrease in Government funding for the next few years.

Seems that reporting on bad news is not thier forte.

FTE Enrolment Fall report … only up to fall 2011.

http://www.unbc.ca/assets/institutional_research/reports/enrolment/fall_hc_college_major_program.pdf

Total enrolment dropped over the last 3 years. Proportion of graduate students increased steadily as have international students.

Thanks Gus. Your stats show the Fall Headcount Enrollment numbers, however the University is funded on the basis of the number of Full Time Equivilant students.

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada show the following for UNBC for fall 2011 enrolments

Full Time Undergraduate 1950 Part Time Undergraduate 970 for a total of 2920 undergraduate students. This is 232 less than the Headcount Enrolment numbers.

In any event we should be getting the 2012 fall FTE numbers sometime soon. My guess is that they will once again be in decline, and therefore the funding attached to student enrolments will also decline.

At present UNBC preliminary planning projections show a projected deficit of
2013/14 (2,241,627) 2014/15 (3,982,799) 2015/16 (4,123,128)

Doesnt appear to be any indication of any increase in student enrolment, and possibly a continuation of the decline.

[ur]http://www.unbc.ca/about/guide/students.html[/url]

That links to a summary page for UNBC enrolment uing headcount instead of FTE. For those who do not click to click through to a link, here is a list showing 2009/2010 and then 2010/2011

Total students in academic programs 4,183 4,266

Undergraduate students 3,469 3,484

Graduate students 675 735

Students at regional campuses 578 606

Self-declared Aboriginal students 389 421

International students (43 countries) 343 396

Students new to UNBC
1,157 1,287

New College/university transfer students 380 462

And here is likely the reason why continuing studies is being promoted…….

Total students 1,966 1,475

CE is populated in the main by locals. So, why are locals not going to UNBC? …. money? time? not practical? not right courses? not recognized by professional associations?, etc.

http://www.unbc.ca/about/guide/students.html

There should be an app for putting links on this web site ….. hint, hint …..;-)

I think that the locals have been going to UNBC over the years, however because we are working with a finite number of people in the Northern Interior, it was only a matter of time before we ran out of people interested in CE.

Providing CE programs in places like Terrace, and Quesnel, for things like fire fighting is somewhat of a stretch, however if it attracts more students, then thier FTE numbers go up, and thier funding improves.

They are also going to the Block system for some students, which I believe is an attempt to make a semester easier for some students, if successful, it would improve thier retention rate, which again would improve thier FTE numbers.

In any event there seems to be a major problem with enrolments, and it will be interesting to see the 2012 numbers.

My prediction down the road would be a University College, like Kamloops, or Nanaimo, or perhaps UNBC will become a campus to UBC like Kelowna.

The USA has state university systems …..Canada has independent universities ….. In my opinion UBC dominated the scene in BC for far too long and was likely a reason why there were never any regional universities. When the college system was finally established in BC in a similar fashion to the CGEPS in Quebec, they delivered 2 year University Transfer programs as they did in Quebec. That slowed down the development of Universities in the outback … I mean hinterlands … even further.

Ontario developed a northern medical program as well. They actually started one year before the BC version but they created a new program which had to go through the Medical Association for accreditation with much stricter scrutiny than UBC satellites did. As a result it took two more years. From what I can tell, they have a much better program from the point of view of working in the remote northern communities.

Universities are about diversity. They are not about cookie cutter approach to education. They are not about monopolies. They are about competition. When we find out that one size does not fit all and we have put a common system in place, failure is catastrophic.

Actually, my prediction is that univerity colleges such as Thompson River University will eventually split apart. Trades are different than technologies and they are both different than universities. AND, more importantly, they are all differnt from the Technical Universities like MIT, IIT, and CalTech. BCIT may, one day some 32 years down the way, share the same level with such institutions.

As usual Palupo is full of “I think” and “It seems” and “I wonders” – according to Palupos posts over the last several years we should have no new Cameron sreet bridge no airport expansion, no University -gawd forbid the Sports centre, no Kin upgrades, no new Police station, dont even mention the winter games he will have a stroke no ball fields, no dog parks – Im probably missing a dozen others. I guess we should have horse and buggies and just plow your road tax free and then maybe you will be happy?
Nah, I get the feeling you wouldnt be happy with that either…

I guess no one will ever admit that the whole concept of a University in Northern BC was a failure, from the get go. We just continue to carry on with the premise that things will get better down the road.

The building of the University was for political reasons as opposed to a real need.

It would be interesting if we could have someone do an indepth analysis of how this University will grow (or not) in the next 15/20 years.

With roughly 300,000 people in North Central BC it is hard to understand how they can ever get enough people to attend this University to make it a viable proposition. We have to keep in mind that our competition is Kamloops, Kelowna, Victoria, UBC, and Simon Fraser, which all have had significant increases in enrolments while we have been declining.

There is no reason to believe that Prince George will change to any degree in the next 10/15 years, if fact indications are it will go in the reverse direction.

The growth in BC will be North Eastern BC, the Southern Interior, and the Terrace, Kitimat, Pr Rupert, (Highway 37) corridor.
Nothing in the greater Prince George area

In fact Prince George’s older residential area’s are getting more and more run down, with more and more low rental houses, and people are continuing to make decisions to get out.

We need some real leadership to turn this around.

Anyone want the job???

Interceptor. You are under the illusion if you build something new, you have made some headway.

If you are not willing to look into the actual cost of all the facilities built in the last 10/20 years, and the cost to operate them, and the justification for building them in the first place, then you will never be able to understand how you are being conned out of your tax dollars.

1.The Airport since it became an Airport Authority in 2002 has spent some $50 Million dollars, on the terminal building, parking lot, and airport runway expansion. None of these **new** facilities are being used to any extent. (if at all) Huge expenditures for no return.

2. Cameron St Bridge. The City Engineer at the time stated that the old bridge could be repaired for $750,000.00. The City opted to wreck the old bridge, and build a new one for some $10 Million dollars. They have no more traffic to-day than they did with the old bridge (maybe less)

3. The new Police Station $38 Million plus interest for a cost of some $80 Million over 20 years is a huge waste of tax dollars. We could have and should have renovated the old station.

4. The Charles Jago Sports Centre cost $30 Million ($25 Million from the Province) and was to be self supporting. This money was available because of the 2010 olympics. UNBC and PG Taxpayers support this facility to the tune of $600,000.00 per year.

5. The Universty can barely keep its head above water, and is slowly going broke while the high rollers in Prince George stick their heads in the sand, and pretend everything is OK at UNBC. (Its not)

6. I am in favour of dog parks. The more dogs crap in a dog park the less dog crap there is in our school yards, sidewalks, and public parks.

7. I beleive that we should provide the best facilities possible for our youth, whether it is swimming pools, hockey (ice) rinks, golf courses, parks, etc; Money for these types of facilities far outweighs $30 Million dollars for some hyped up industrial park on a new Boundry Road cut-off.

Spending tax dollars on all sorts of projects does not indicate that the City is moving forward. In fact the opposite is true. It is because we are not moving ahead in any area, that the Government is wasting this money, to give the illusion of growth.

We need to grow up and face the facts. If we cannot recognize that we have a serious problem in the greater Prince George area, then we can never find a solution.

Palupu, I agree with your airport thing, but don’t agree with the Cameron St. Bridge.That old excuse for a bridge needed replacement.
And the more dog crap in a dog park is less crap on my lawn.
But, we need a new police station, guess you’ve never had a tour of the old one, it was too small the year it was built, guys were doing their paperwork in their cars in the 70’s now they’re pecking away on computers. You’ve never seen the exhibit room, but yeah, sad old building. Don’t know that we needed the extravagance in the new one, but they’re building those all over the place.