Our first campus tour takes us out of province to the scenic city of Kelowna, British Columbia. While visiting one of Canada's most beautiful cities, I had the opportunity to tour the Okanagan Campus of the University of British Columbia.
Great reputation. Pristine environment. State of the art facilities. What's not to love!
In just a short time it is easy to understand what makes this school a favourite option for students wishing to continue their education out of province.
Having opened in 2005, the Okanagan campus sits on 516 acres of land in the heart of British Columbia's Okanagan Valley. Located just five minutes from the Kelowna International airport and less than thirty minutes from the City of Kelowna, the campus houses over 1.5 million square feet of facility space including over 1,600 residence beds.
The school provides degrees from the University of British Columbia, which was recently ranked #31 in the world by the prestigious Academic Ranking of World Universities and #40 by the academics Times Higher Education survey. The university receives over $14 million annually to fund research across 700 different projects.
Program Options
Offering both undergraduate and graduate programs, the campus plays host to over 8,000 students and 500 faculty members. Undergrads can directly enter into more than fifty bachelor degree options across 8 fields of study as follows:
Arts (BA) (24 streams)
Engineering (BSc) (3 streams)
Fine Arts (BFA)
Kinesiology or Human Kinetics (BHK)
Business Management (BMgt)
Media Studies (BMS)
Nursing (BSN, LPN or RNA)
Science (BSc) (18 streams)
In addition, students with prior degrees can pursue advanced degrees in education (BEd) and medicine (MD).
Learning Facilities
The modern campus boasts of several engineering masterpieces among its teaching facilities, with new modern lecture halls and state of the art amenities to support the learning environment.
Engineering, Management and Education Building - spectacular facility displaying the skills of the trade.
Arts & Science Lecture Hall - modern design, spacious and technologically advanced classrooms provide students with a robust and comfortable learning environment.
UBCO Liabrary - enjoy this tour of the school library and the services available to students for researching and private studying.
Residence
Several residence options are available, all in relatively new attractive buildings. Rooms vary from the standard single rooms to well furnished apartment style 4 bedroom units.
Activities
The campus features many state of the art sporting facilities, including the impressive Hangar which houses 4,000 square feet of weight and cardio equipment on the upper floor and two studios for fitness classes, spinning and dance on the lower floor.
The Okanagan Gym is a beautiful large hardwood-floored facility used for basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer and badminton for varsity and intramural sports.
Nonis field is an outdoor turf field used for soccer, football, field hockey and lacrosse.
The campus also provides beach volleyball courts and an outdoor all-season boarded multi-sport playing court for ball hockey, lacrosse and basketball.
The school has varsity representation in a number of sports and intramural programs for soccer, basketball, indoor volleyball, ultimate frisbee, flag football and dodgeball. Hockey leagues are available through the city of Kelowna.
The University Centre houses a series of support services for students and serves as the hub of student activity for the campus. The main cafeteria resides here as well as most academic advisory services.
Of course, the Okanagan Valley also provides an opportunity for off-campus activities in one of the most spectacular outdoor environments in the country. The photos below were taken from atop Knox Mountain just minutes from downtown Kelowna.
