Prince George, B.C.-  Both  the University of Northern B.C. and the College of New Caledonia are ready to welcome  students  back to classes.

Although  enrolment numbers won’t be official  for  a few weeks,  both  institutions are expecting  healthy  numbers this semester.

At UNBC,  President Daniel Weeks   says  student numbers are “trending right now to  be up a little bit.  We are looking at about a 6% increase in our student body this year.”  He says the expected increase  is a reflection of all the hard work that has been done  in spreading  the word about UNBC’s many  successes  over the past few years,  not the least of which  is being named the number one small university in Canada  by Macleans magazine.

President  Weeks says   while the  numbers  won’t be final until late September,  the data  at this point indicates things are looking pretty good   “If everything holds the way we are right now, we will be up about 150 students over last year.  Our graduate students are up  as well,  so we are tracking right now at about  6% (more).”   That  translates to  about 2850 students on campus and a little over 200  of them  are international students. “We are making a significant push to increase our international student numbers, we do have some room to grow there without compromising any of our programs, in fact I think its a good thing for our campus to increase our international  student cohort somewhat, so we’ll be working pretty hard on that over the next  year or two.”

One of the positives about UNBC has  always been the  small class size,  but President Weeks says  the increased numbers won’t change that “In fact, we continue  to enjoy a very intimate atmosphere.  Students here have  direct access to outstanding researchers, outstanding faculty.  It ( small class size) is one of the hallmarks of our institution and   in no way are we interested in  sacrificing that intimate boutique kind of experience  that you can get at UNBC.”

Over at the College of New Caledonia,  student numbers  will bein the 2400 range throughout the  College’s various campuses  with  just over 2100 attending  at the campus in Prince George.  Many of the trades training programs don’t start right away, so  numbers  are difficult to pin down at this time.   What is interesting is that  CNC will be welcoming  an cohort of International students from Mexico this year.  They will be enrolling in the English as a Second Language  program, and taking some University transfer courses.

In all, the number of international students at CNC  this year is about 140,  similar to what it has been  in the past.  Most are  enrolled in  a variety of programs from English as a Second Language, to University transfer programs, and post diploma  programs.

What is new at CNC is an effort  to ease the financial crunch associated with  the text books needed for  courses.   The Mathematics program is adopting a new free, open access textbook from math 101 and math 104.   The ‘text” can be downloaded as a pdf,  and  pages printed as needed.  The  College is also looking  for pdf versions of other custom text books.

Today and tomorrow at CNC,  its Orientation for International students,  and tomorrow,  those  in academic upgrading programs will be  invited to an orientation.