Joel Burnham doesn’t know where he’ll be putting his civil engineering training to work three years from now, after he graduates from UNBC, but his new job might find him working closely with someone he knows extremely well.
His dad, Jason, works as a plumber in the Greater Vancouver area and he says there just might be a position in the company waiting for his son, designing plumbing and irrigation projects.
“He works with me in the summer so he’s had some field experience and we interact with engineers all the time,” said Jason. “Quite possibly he could get a job (in the company), he’s a perfect fit.”
They both drove up from their home in White Rock and were among the crowd of UNBC students and their families that converged on the student residence parking lot to unload possessions for the new school year that starts on Wednesday, Sept. 3.
The Burnhams' SUV was packed to the ceiling with furniture and personal items, including Joel’s hockey stick and skates and two mountain bikes racked on the back, one for him and one for his dad. They planned to ride the trails at Pidherny before Jason heads back home on Friday.
“There’s some good trails around here,” said Joel. “I just ride the trails for fun.”
As a second-year student, Joel knows the lay of the land around the Cranbrook Hill campus and what’s expected of him as a university student living away from home. The fact he’s gone through it all before made him feel that much better about his return to UNBC, where he likes his program.
“I like the small class sizes and you get to know the professor better, it’s more individual (interactions),” Joel said.
The first-year civil engineering program has about 60 students. If he’d stuck close to home at UBC, the number of first-years there is more than 500.
Having grown up in place that gets snow one or two days a year, his first taste of a northern BC winter took him a little by surprise.
“Just going grocery shopping was one of the toughest things to do, just shovelling the car out, and starting it up to let it warm up,” he said. “But there’s no traffic, that’s a big thing.”
Jason said his son came back home to White Rock last spring better for the experience.
“He seemed a little bit more chill, more relaxed, he’d seen the outside world a little bit and he seemed more calm,” said Jason. “He’s very focused, very determined and I see the drive. When he wants to do something he gives it his all.”
For four years, UNBC has assigned move-in times for students who live at the residence and that’s eliminated much of the chaos and hours-long lineups that used to happen this time of year. Residence capacity is just over 500 and most of the rooms are taken, with 480 students moving in Thursday and Friday.
This is the 35th year of UNBC’s existence. The province passed the UNBC Act on June 22, 1990 after a petition to bring the university to Prince George gathered 16,000 signatures, each with a $5 donation to the Interior University Society.
As of Aug. 15, UNBC had 2,351 full-time equivalent (FTE) students based on an overall enrolment of 2,915. This month there are 18.7 more full-time equivalent students – a five per cent increase over Aug. 15, 2024 - based on a head count of 70 more students.
“We’re really excited to have the students return to campus, it’s like a Saskatchewan farmer in the springtime, when all that energy, newness and excitement come back and for us this is our springtime," said Bill Owen, UNBC’s vice-president academic and interim provost.
“Our full-time equivalents are up right now and we’re waiting for the Sept. 1 report to come up next week and then we’ll have a good indication where we’ll be at going into the fall.”
Domestic enrolment has increased five per cent over last year, while the number of international students dropped by about 10 per cent. That falls in line with Canada’s two-year cap on international students, which reduced the number of permits 35 per cent in 2024 and 10 per cent this year.
“We do expect the federal government will continue with international caps,” said Owen. “They’ve seen the results they’ve wanted, but for post-secondaries it’s been very challenging for us to switch our recruitment and retention efforts in light of the federal policies.
“For UNBC, because we weren’t as heavily invested in international students we haven’t felt an impact to the same degree as other provincial institutions, but we’re still down in international enrolment. Our projection of flat enrolment growth is due to the great work our recruitment team and others have done in terms of domestic recruitment. Our domestic numbers have increased and we’re looking to see if that holds.”
Student tuition rose two per cent compared to last school year, the maximum allowed for colleges and universities, but Owen says that will not cover the increased operating costs at UNBC.
“It means we’re not keeping up with the cost of inflation,” said Owen. “The university has to find other ways to financially support what we do for our students and the learning environment. We’re looking at reallocating funds in other departments and utilizing carry-forward funds from past years to support this year’s needs. They’re short-term strategies while we look at developing new budget models for addressing inflation.”
There have been no faculty cuts at UNBC this year, according to Owen, but the university is looking at delaying some of the new hires. UNBC, Canada’s third-ranked small undergraduate university in the latest Macleans poll, is also reviewing its class sizes.
“We want appropriate classes that are still small and have a community feel to them, but they may be a bit larger than they are now,” said Owen. “Our faculty knows our students by name, and that’s so important to them.”
UNBC is still seeking a replacement for president Geoff Payne, who announced June 19 he was leaving his position to become the new president and CEO of Michael Smith Health Research BC.
Owen said he expects the UNBC board chair to announce an interim president in the next few weeks. This week, the board began asking for university members to serve on its hiring committee.
