UNBC Working on Adding Engineering Program

Wednesday, November 17, 2010 03:59 AM

Prince George, B.C.- The University of Northern B.C. is keeping an eye on how the province will handle one of the recommendations from the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services.

The Committee released its budget 2011 consultation report last week, and it included a recommendation that the government “Examine the feasibility of establishing an engineering program at UNBC appropriate for the North.” This is the second straight year that the committee has made that recommendation.

UNBC isn’t waiting for the Government to make the first step, Provost Mark Dale says UNBC already has already been working on this one “We have a proposal put together and we are discussing it with the Ministry.”

Dale adds, engineering is expensive “We are undergoing an active discussion with our ministry on a proposal to have engineering at UNBC. Once again, that will depend on the availability of resources, particularly financial ones.”

The Northern Technologists and Engineering Society had developed a report documenting that probably a thousand people or so would need or want such training either at the University or college level in engineering and engineering technology.

Dale says there are some basic needs for civil and mechanical engineering in the north, “For our purposes we would like to see an engineering program that would focus on natural resource based industries and on renewable energy. I think that would make sense both for the needs of the region and for the range of expertise we currently have here at UNBC.”

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Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 03:59 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: gus on November 17 2010 6:31 AM

"probably a thousand people or so would need or want such training"

Does that statement make any sense without a time period? over 10 years? 20 years? Finite, then the program gets shut down?
----------------
"for the range of expertise we currently have here at UNBC.”

In my opinion, not a strong reason for program selection. Select the program based on local, provincial, and national needs and hire the specialists.

Posted by: Pojeb_sa on November 17 2010 6:48 AM

Are there any other training programs for outsourced jobs UNBC is planning to offer? How about Call Center etiquette, or remote tech support? Wait, I know, maybe a degree program in database administration, software development, or manufacturing!

Now that Harper is working on free trade with India, the sky's the limit for outsourcing in Canada.

http://www.canada.com/business/Harper+announces+opening+free+trade+agreement+talks+with+India/3815355/story.html

Posted by: Maverick on November 17 2010 7:12 AM

Universities generally don't teach people how to answer phones at a call center.

Posted by: Retired on November 17 2010 10:12 AM

Good move. Hope it works out for UNBC. Engineering is a solid profession. This artsy fartsy stuff is for dreamers.
Cheers

Posted by: gamblor on November 17 2010 10:14 AM

Agreed. its about time they added some "real" programs. Last I checked, the philosophy store was not hiring.

Posted by: pgmatt on November 17 2010 11:10 AM

That would be a great addition and there is lots of work for technologists and engineers here. UNBC is one of the few good news stories from Prince George hope they keep expanding.

Posted by: univ on November 17 2010 12:12 PM

Better late than never. But without any additional costs, UNBC can raise the status of engineering in UNBC by:

- Adding Tech/Engineering as the 5th area of importance to the UNBC strategic plan.

- Adding Tech/Enginnering as the 5th area of importance to the UNBC strategic research plan.

- Allocating 2 or more reaserch chairs to Tech/Engineering (non-environmental)in its requests to government.

- In future hiring for executive positions (Dean/VP/...) hire professionals with engineering degree.

- Maintaining its present human resources in engineering and stop forcing faculty members (with engineering degrees) to leave UNBC during buyouts/layoffs or renewal of contracts.

- Changing the name of college of science and management (CSAM) in UNBC to college of science and engineering.

Posted by: gus on November 17 2010 2:34 PM

Given the number of engineers who end up in management positions, I would suggest a renaming to College of Engineering and Management. While an MBA is not required for P.Eng. to end up in management, there are many who have obtained an MBA.

MBA or MBET .... is an MBA the type of degree required to enhance an engineer's skills?

Look at this presentation for the MBET gaduate degree from the University of Waterloo. The only one in Canada so far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUIfJlBtb2E

Of course, it might be a difficult location to put on such a program ... but hey, UNBC has been able to buck the odds. They seem to have liked challenges in the past.

:-)

Posted by: univ on November 17 2010 5:33 PM

In order to introduce engineering degrees and be able to name them as engineering, UNBC also needs faculty members with PEng (professional engineering) registeration.

I doubt that any UNBC faculty member has it and the number of qualified faculty for getting PEng registeration in UNBC has decreased by around 30% compared to when Jago was president and Brunt was provost.

What I don't understand is: how UNBC is going to introduce engineering programs while actively eliminating the engineering faculty members who are essential for such programs. Hmmm?

Posted by: univ on November 17 2010 9:29 PM

The name CSAM is very rare in Canadian universities and other universities have college/faculty of applied science or faculty of science and faculty of engineering.

In CSAM, (M)anagement refers to the environmental Mngment program (part of NER), while (S)cience covers programs in CSAM such as Physics,Math,Chem., Geography ... (which are neither management nor engineering). A name like college of science of engineering covers existing science programs, NER and any future engineering program.
- The other alternative is to create a school of engineering as part of present CSAM and leave Env. Engineering as part of an environmental school.

But people and team spirit are more important than name. In light of rapid decline in 2010 enrollment in UNBC, the provost Mark Dale needs to "make peace with the union" asap in order to focus and direct all the energy on developing UNBC engineering faculty members and their engineering proposals. What is now needed is less discord and more collegiality in 2 colleges.

Posted by: gus on November 17 2010 11:55 PM

Schools, Faculties, Colleges all as departmental divisions of Universities.

They can be Engineering or Applied Science.

There is no school, nor faculty, nor college of Forestry at UNBC, yet the Association of BC Forest Professionals has accredited the UNBC as delivering a program which recognized the education as meeting the education requirements of the profession (RPF).

I do not know why the hangup about letting those who are P.Eng. go.

To be honest with you, if I was to be placed in charge of developing a new program, I would prefer to start with a clean slate. Having to fit round pegs into square holes can kill a potentially excellent program from the very start.

Posted by: gus on November 17 2010 11:58 PM

Univ, tell me, how many medical doctors did UNBC have on faculty before they applied to get the northern meds program?

Posted by: univ on November 18 2010 8:02 AM

The medical program in UNBC is actually "a UBC program" and the requirement for engineering is different than the requirement of forestry. The forestry/NER in UNBC has been one of the dominant areas of UNBC and engineering has not been.

"... if I was to be placed in charge of developing a new program, I would prefer to start with a clean slate."

No, the way to create a program is to "inspire people and not scare them" away or bully them (quoting Bennett). Inspire "players" to spend extra time to develop a program and actively support them at Dean/Chair and committee levels to remove the internal roadblocks, the opposition to change, the opposition by NER to non-NER programs (UNBC balance of powers) ... .

UNBC and union, over the past 3 years, have wasted enough time and energies on not inspiring "the team members" in UNBC and it is showing badly in the enrollments. I am not whining, but UNBC as "a team" is not winning. They are not fighting the competition effectively because of this in-fighting and discord. I have said it before, The current coaches (President Iwama or Provost Mark Dale) can take the first steps to change dis/course.

UNBC has been in a state of "hangover" and you know hangover-2 is being filmed now.

Posted by: univ on November 18 2010 10:13 AM

"... why the hangup ..."

/derukuihautareru/ = 出る杭は打たれる