March 24, 2012

The Board of Governors for the University of Northern British Columbia has approved a $67.2 million operating budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year and has signaled that operational efficiencies and growth in revenues will be needed in the near future to cope with reduced government funding.
 
The new operating budget follows several years of static government funding combined with stable enrolments and tuition increases of 2% per year. This 2% increase will raise the tuition fee for a typical, full-time undergraduate student by $92 per year.

“We know from this year’s provincial government announcement that our funding will be the same this year but that it will be reduced by 1% next year and 1.5% the year after,” says UNBC President George Iwama. “This will require work on our part to increase revenues and carefully control expenditures. We will engage with the full university community and our region in identifying how best to position UNBC for the future.”
 
“It’s ironic that we are talking about how to cut costs when the region is in such desperate need for more skilled and educated citizens,” says Board Chair Dawn Martin, who presided over her last Board meeting after serving as a representative of the Northwest region for the past six years. “In 2015, UNBC will be 25 years old and the University must use the next few years to prepare for its next phase of growth.”