University of Northern British Columbia

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 with the completion of the main Prince George campus after two years of construction.

The Prince George campus is located on Cranbrook Hill, overlooking the city of Prince George from the west, and is widely renowned for its innovative architecture. The separate buildings are linked by an agora that is partially below ground level. It is the efficient heating system connected to all the core campus buildings that permits UNBC to pursue its goal of heating the university by the gasification of clean-burning, renewable wood pellets, collected from the waste of pine trees killed by the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

UNBC's buildings are designed to represent the northern landscape. The "Winter Garden" area has a flowing blue staircase below a ceiling of wooden lattices, representing the west-coast rain forests. The cafeteria has a lighthouse design representative of the North's rugged coastline. There are also other structures, such as triangular glass peaks, that represent mountains and act as sky-lights for the UNBC Bookstore.

On October 13, 2010, UNBC was co-awarded the Campus Sustainability Leadership Award by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) for its bio-energy project, which targets a reduction in fossil fuel use by supplying 85% of UNBC's heating needs.

International students must meet the equivalent of the criteria outlined for High School Admission and University Transfer in British Columbia. Admission is based on the comparison of standards for credentials and grading in the country of origin. 

For admission from a GCE system (or equivalent) a minimum of two Advanced (A) level subjects and three Ordinary (O) level subjects, must be completed with an overall grade point average of C or higher in order to be considered for admission. All A level subjects presented for admission must have a grade of at least C. Students may substitute two Advanced-Subsidiary (AS) level subjects for one A-level.

Applicants whose first language is not English must be able to demonstrate an acceptable level of proficiency in English.