to many ribbons, can get to the present.

Enrolment up between 2 and 3% this year. This should put it at approx 2.5%. Why cant these University dudes state exactly by now many students has enrolments increased. Could it be because once you do the math and get the number for the full time equivelent students at 2.5% you will probably come up with a number somewhere around 50 Students, or less. An increase of 50 students doesnt sound as impressive as an increase of between 2 and 3%.

When will we ever get beyond smoke and mirrors and start to deal with specifics?

Actually 50 new students, given the size of the place, is great news. 2 or 3 % is done just so that it is easier for people to understand.

Come on folks. Prince George is not a big place. Can't we, for once, say Prince George is doing a good job, rather than the continuous negative? The University is top rank, and it it helping our economy as well as our population. It is time to grow up and have a good look at something that is positive in this community.

Good on you willowynde. This is time to celebrate our university, not ridicule it. Get up there and take courses you naysayers, it is your university too.

Palopu is all about growth. If it ain't growin' it ain't worth nothin'.

Polopu does not recognize growth in quality. At a time when the population of the traditional young adult population that attended universities is dropping, UNBC is holding its own and has steadily increased its status measured in other ways than simple head counts.

I will be so bold as to say that had it not been pursuing excellence, it may not have the number of students it has now.

Palopu asks a detailed question about why University dudes and dudettes cannot state exactly by now many students enrolment has increased.

I gather it never dawned on him to call the UNBC if he did not know why that is.

Think it through yourself. When does one count the beans when beans keep moving around? In this case, the beans are counted at a government dictated time some weeks AFTER the start of the semester so that one gets a count at a more "steady state" situation, after students have finished adding and dropping courses.

An estimate is very appropriate until official figures from the Registrar's office are in.

I have called the University in the past and they indicated that the process they use to arrive at the number of full time equivelant students, is complex. The FTE number is the number used by the Provincial Government to fund Universitys. I was referred to the University Presidents Council that supplies this data for all BC Universitys on a yearly basis, however the last update was Nov 2006.

2 to 3% could also mean an increase of 20 Students, who knows?? How would you know if you dont know the FTE enrollment numbers from 2007. You can rest assured that Charles Jago knows exactly how many FTE students there are and is using the percentage number because it is meaningless, but more than sufficient for the populace of Prince George who for the most part would never take the time to do any research to get to the facts.

The rating for UNBC in Macleans magazine is for the 19 Smallest Universities in Canada, and Prince George ranks well in terms of its Library, Teacher to Student Ratio and class size, and money spent on research.

Now is doesnt take a fully functioning brain to figure out that if you have class rooms that are only half full, that you are going to get a better teacher to student ratio. Nor is it hard to figure out that if you have a well stocked library you will get points. The research criteria as far as I know is based on the amount of money spent on research, and not on the quality of the research, so in effect they are spending lots of money, but are they getting any BANG for their bucks.

The rating doesnt appear to have anything to do with the grade average required to enter the University, and I suspect that you can get into UNBC with a 65% grade average while UVIC, UBC, and Simon Fraser would require a 75% or higher grade average.

The very slow growth in enrollments at this University is the result of there being a small number of people in the Central Interior, who actually graduate from high school and go on to University.
Once you deduct the students who go elsewhere, and keeping in mind that there is a large percentage of students who do not finish high school, factor in the declining number of students entering the school system which means that graduations will continue to decline for the next 10 to 15 years,coupled with the small number of students who attend this University from other areas and you have a major enrolment problem. Hence the loosy goosy 2 to 3% increase jargon, to muddy the waters and give the impression of growth.

Enrolment at UNBC has been basically static for the past 5 or 6 years, while other Universities have had substantial increases. The population of Prince George and the Central Interior has actually declined in the past 10 years. If the trend continues (and it will) UNBC will continue to have a serious enrollment problem, and by extension will not get any increases in funding from the Province.

It is in the realm of possibility that if enrollment falls below the present number to any significant level that there will be some changes coming, such a merger with CNC.

Contrary to popular beleive UNBC came about mainly because the Social Credit Government of the day needed every thing possible to get re-elected, and establishing a University in Prince George with campuses in other ridings in the Interior was part of their political strategy, once it was established it continued to this day.

In any event my point is that these Government talking heads, always talk in double speak to muddy the waters, and seem incapable of giving us the true facts. So if you want them, you have to go looking for them.

UNBC under Cozzetto made a joint agreement with CNC on joint enrolments or ease of transfer of students between the two,
what was that deal?

Is it contributing to increasing both enrolments in CNC and UNBC, or at least preventing their numbers to fall down?

The MacLean's survey isn't good research. It is not the kind of survey that would be acceptable by university standards. Yet UNBC harps on it every year as a promotional tool.

Do you think that the UNBC staff and faculty will get a pay raise? Hardly....

MacLean measures based on student satisfaction, research money and ... [all in one number] and ranks universities based on this number in their group. There are at least 2 factors involved for UNBC. The size of classes becoming smaller in UNBC over the past 6 years and the increase in per faculty research money compared to the 90's.

The annual research money [12-17 Mil] that UNBC has attracted per year [since 2002] has put UNBC in the range of 32-47th top research universities over the past 6 years; e.g. last year's UNBC's 37th compares with SFU's 20th. Once UNBC acheived a treshold in research funding, it brings a momentum by creating gov. funded research chairs.

This will be helping UNBC in the Maclean's ranking. Research money per full time faculty in UNBC [around 80K]is a bit lower than SFU numbers [around 100K] despite only 2 PhD programs in UNBC comapred to many in SFU.

But do all of those stats translate into UNBC claiming that they are the second best university in their category?

But do all of those stats translate into UNBC claiming that they are the second best university in their category?

Well, It is very good for marketing to have a magazine saying that you are no
2 in your group of undergraduate universities. I have seen other reports ranking differently.

But after all marketing, you need to have enough students [customers] who buy your service in order to sustain that service. The student who buys a UNBC package [based on marketing], when enroled, opens the UNBC package and will see what is inside during his/her 4 years study. If the service is good s/he will recommend it to others and will stay, if not, s/he may leave.