Prince George, B.C.- Once again, UNBC has been named the second best  Primarily Undergraduate University in Canada.

The Maclean’s Magazine ranking is  an improvement  over  the third place mark  reached last year,  but  it is  the  third time it has been  ranked second in this category hitting the number 2 spot in  2012 and  2008.

The annual report is considered a valuable tool for students who are making decisions about where they would like to  go to  furthering their education.

“The Maclean’s rankings are another indication of the exceptional learning environment at UNBC,” says UNBC President Daniel Weeks. “The strong results in so many categories reflects the commitment to excellence UNBC’s faculty, students, and staff demonstrate every day.” UNBC placed first among the 19 Primarily Undergraduate universities in library acquisitions, but also had top-three results in student awards, student/faculty ratio, and library expenses. UNBC also performed well in other key indictors ranging from faculty awards to total research budget.

UNBC President Daniel Weeks  says  there is still work that needs to be done  if UNBC wants to  make it to the number one spot “We’re going to look at that very, very carefully.  There’s a couple of areas we can improve on, but  we’re a young university so we’re fighting a little bit of an uphill battle  because were’ so young.  For example; the amount of money we put in directly to student scholarships as a percentage  of our budget is relatively low, because again,  because  we are a young institution,  we haven’t had  enough time yet to build up those endowments like the older institutions have.  There are institutions in our category that are over a hundred years old so they’ve been a little longer at the game.

He says  while UNBC scores well in many of the categories used to  create a ranking,  there is still work to be done on  the University’s overall reputation “It’s not that we have a bad reputation,  we clearly don’t, we’re doing  very well  in so many other categories, but what it tells me is  that maybe we don’t have enough of a reputation and that is, that while people  here in Prince George and across the north  at our other campuses  know full well what a quality institution we have,  but I think maybe we need to tell that story a little more broadly across Canada and internationally  and really try to  make sure that not only we know, but that all Canadians know.”

UNBC is second only to Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. in this category of  universities.