University of Northern British Columbia

In 2015 and 2016 UNBC was ranked as the number one university of its size in Canada in the Primarily Undergraduate category by Maclean’s Magazine.  As of 2019, UNBC was ranked in the top three in its category for 12 straight years.

In 2007, the university obtained the trademark for “Canada’s Green University”. Because of its northern latitude, UNBC is a member of the University of the Arctic.

The British Columbia legislature passed Bill 40 (the UNBC Act), which formally established the university, on June 22, 1990. The university was established in response to a grass-roots movement spearheaded by the Interior University Society. UNBC offered a limited number of courses in rented office space in 1992 and 1993 but was opened officially by Queen Elizabeth II, with 1,500 students in 1994 upon the completion of the main Prince George campus after two years of construction.

The university gained attention with the introduction of the Northern Medical Program (NMP), a collaboration between UBC and UNBC. Through this collaboration, several academic physicians have been attracted to the city, which has led to an emerging academic medical community. For example, the introduction of the BC Cancer Agency Centre for the North has attracted academic oncologists, such as Dr. Robert Olson.