November 11, 2001 For Immediate Release

In the annual Maclean's magazine ranking of Canadian universities, the University of Northern British Columbia has placed 14th among primarily undergraduate universities. Last year, UNBC placed 10th.

Students
· The survey indicates that the quality of UNBC students is rising. For example, UNBC's average entering grade has increased from 78.6% to 79.5%, moving UNBC from 11th to 9th. In the category that measures the success of students in winning national awards, UNBC has risen from 10th to 6th.
· The value of scholarships and bursaries grew from $597,000 in 1999 to $733,000 last year. This year, students are eligible for awards worth nearly $1 million.

Library
· As a proportion of the budget, UNBC commits more money to new library acquisitions than any other university in its category. More than $1.6 million was spent last year on acquisitions, and the collection is growing as a result. The Geoffrey R. Weller Library now has more than 160,000 books and the funding earmarked for acquiring electronic library resources continues to grow.

Faculty
· UNBC scores in the top eight in all categories that gauge faculty quality, including measures of their success in receiving national awards and attracting research funding. The proportion of faculty with PhDs has declined as a result of hiring a number of promising young faculty who are in the process of completing doctoral degrees.

"We're disappointed with our drop from 10th to 14th," says UNBC President Charles Jago, "but mixed in with disappointment is some good news. Our students have greater success in obtaining national awards and we know from alumni surveys that our graduates have a high employment rate and are more satisfied with their university education than the alumni from any other BC university. Our student awards have nearly doubled in two years, yet we have not improved in that category. At the same time, we continue to be first in library acquisitions and we're gratified that our faculty have above-average success in attracting research funding. Our goal is to continue building a comprehensive and regional university offering a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. In this respect, we are distinctive from many other universities in our category."