2024 has been a year full of positives for UNBC, according to President Dr. Geoff Payne.
“The implementation of our new strategic plan, Ready, that’s starting to take foothold, our priorities that we identified in 2024, student experience, student journey, attracting and retaining good people, and of course our connection in the community and having that local and global impact, so it’s been very good that way,” Payne said.
“Students have, I think, had a great experience, good opportunities here, we’ve done very well in terms of our Maclean’s rankings, in the top three again, recognized by Times Higher Education as that small university, and our research successes, so I think, overall, I’m very happy with 2024 and what UNBC has done.”
Payne said in 2025, the next steps for the strategic plan will be to ensure the priorities will be embedded in everything the university does.
“The real important lens for us here at UNBC is our students, I’ve sort of encapsulated it all into a student first approach at UNBC,” he said.
“I want students to feel like when they choose UNBC, I want them to feel home, that they belong, but they also have an expectation of what they’re going to get out of their education and research opportunities here, so we have to meet those, and so we’re really thinking hard about how we take that priority, that main priority, and then embed in all the things we do here at UNBC leading into 2025.”
It was recently announced 2023 was near a record for research income, with UNBC earning $17.7 million during the 2023 fiscal year, Payne said it looks promising that 2024 will be another good year.
“I think UNBC, being a research intensive university, has always punched well above its weight in terms of the quality of the research, the level of research funding, as well as the outcomes that are going out and beyond the university and making that impact,” he said.
“But here at UNBC, as we age and just about at our 35th anniversary, we have the largest number of new faculty that we’ve got at UNBC since its inception, so those new faculty are coming in with their ideas, their research programs, and that is going to really drive the research programs, and we have an amazing office of research, led by our Vice President of Research and Innovation, Dr. [Paula] Wood-Adams.”
Payne added he’s been impressed with the research output the university has achieved this year.
“We’ve been recognized again this year in terms of continuing to rise up the rankings, the diversity, the breadth of research, results, outcomes that are coming out of UNBC across a number of domains really excites me,” he said.
“The other thing that really excites me is the ability for students very early in their tenure here at UNBC to get involved in research. Being a small university, we really have to ensure that we maximize the resources, and I think we do a phenomenal to have students involved in research. There’s such an amazing sort of breadth of things that have been coming out over the past year, and that has been part of UNBC’s culture since its been founded almost 35 years ago, our anniversary is coming up this year.”
One way the University is celebrating the 35th anniversary is by giving scholarships of $350 to 350 students.
“You will see a lot more come out over the course of 2025 that’s going to continue support the student experience,” he said.
“We’re making investments in new scholarship opportunities, new bursaries, but we’re also investing in the ecosystem of how a student journeys here at UNBC, so they, in addition to having a great educational experience, it’s also seamless in terms of being a student here.”
Payne added 2024 was also fraught with challenges for post-secondary institutions in Canada, particularly when it comes to international students.
However, he said UNBC won’t be impacted as severely as some other institutions.
“We had the amount of international students, that we think are very important to have here at UNBC, they are critical to our success, they add that diversity, that lens, and it’s really a great experience for all students,” he explained.
“With the new regulations coming in, it does put an onus on us to make sure that we are adhering to those regulations, that we can weather any of the policy changes the federal government will have, but us here at UNBC, we’re not in a position where you have seen in other sort of news areas where institutions are really struggling given that the numbers of international students will not be realized and that is certainly going to have budget challenges.”
Payne estimated that about 20 per cent of undergraduate students are international students, and the percentage of graduate students is a little bit higher.
“Our ratios are quite reasonable, it’s certainly one that we’ve been keeping an eye on to ensure that we don’t get caught, or, not over-exposed, we have the right mix of student body here at UNBC that will allow the students to have their expectations achieved and for us to really deliver on those.”
Payne added that a few weeks ago, the university held an event with some founding donors and alumni.
“We had the opportunity to have a couple of speakers, and President number two, Dr. Charles Jago, and former MLA Shirley Bond, and the President of our Alumni Council, Melissa Bolster spoke at the event,” he said.
“What it really did signify to me, and I think encapsulate what we’ve just been talking about, we have to look back and see where we came from, and those initial discussions and visions of where we were going to is now being realized today, and will go forward. You’ve got to look back to move forward, and I think what we’ve achieved to date over almost 35 years will be a very exciting beacon to what we’re going to do in the next 35.”
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