UNBC Senate Approves Civil Engineering Program
Prince George, B.C. – A much sought after program is one step closer to seeing the light of day at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).
This after UNBC’s Senate approved a civil engineering program yesterday.
Prince George City Councillor Albert Koehler has been lobbying for such a program for 20 years and says it’s about time.
“The engineering profession as such has been neglected in this area for a long time and when you look at studies they show that the gap between supply and demand in the technical field compared to all other professions is widening every day.”
He says graduates in this field will fill a big void in Prince George considering the next closest civil engineering program is located in the Okanagan.
“We only have two civil engineers left when it comes to building houses or other buildings and approving them. Both of them want to retire. Even the City has trouble finding qualified engineers.”
As for next steps, Koehler says the program will need approval from the ministry of advanced education.
No word yet on when the first intake of students might be.
Comments
Engineers tend to have more of a reality conservative bent so I don’t know how they will fit into the liberal left dogma of UNBC.
Not a problem .. they can hang out with the other applied degrees like Business, Forestry, Nursing,and so on. Seems like those strong options have have not encountered significant difficulties within the UNBC culture.
Eh? This is not something I’ve ever noticed. I do know some conservative engineers, but I know more liberal engineers. I’m married to one of them. We do manage to live in reality as well though, so I think perhaps you are just confused.
They’re usually a bit to busy to be sitting around the coffee shops discussing politics.
You must don’t have a grasp on reality…keep,the comedy coming.
Minus the must :)
Ahh.. i see what you did there seamutt..Fishing for controversy..
Jokes aside the University was brought in at a time when there was a need for forestry and environmental related degree programs. Considering at that time forestry was the dominant industry in the region. Consequently a lot of the funding at this time came from forest related funding from both government and industry so that had a huge influence in direction of the programs. There also needs to be a demand for these programs before funding is put in place to accommodate them. Its hard to start a new program when schools like BCIT and UBC have very well established and reputable programs.
Having said that at least this is a good step in the right direction in keeping and training local people that want to stay here..
Thanks Albert for not giving up on this. Much needed, not only for the engineers it will produce but for the students the program attract to the community.
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