University of British Columbia (UBC) Review
UBC has consistently ranked among the 40 best universities of the world in any university rankings. It is a global center for research, innovation and teaching excellence. Hosting more than 59,000 students in its Vancouver campus, and more than 8,000 students in its Okanagan campus; UBC is one of the largest public universities which remains at the forefront of academic excellence. UBC so far has been truly an excellent and rewarding experience for me. I am glad that I took the right decision to join UBC for my higher studies. I’d like to discuss just some of the hallmarks that distinguish UBC from its peer institutions. In my opinion, these are the characteristics that provide an edge when individuals around the world are considering whether to come to UBC!
One of the first things that drew me towards UBC was its focus on research and even undergraduates can get the opportunity to do research with world renowned professors! From my personal experience, only in my first year of undergraduate studies, I presented one of my research papers in a conference!
UBC declares itself as a research university and it’s true. The professors in UBC are mostly the leading academics in their respective fields doing active research and that’s why the classes they take are very relevant to the real world issues and events making the education compatible with latest researches. My Faculty of Arts is a global research powerhouse, ranking first in Canada and fourth in the world outside the US in the Social Sciences in the Shanghai Jiao Tong and Times Higher Education rankings, after Cambridge, Oxford and LSE.
UBC has long taken advantage of its Asia Pacific gateway location. Founded in 1961, the Department of Asian Studies is the Canadian leader, and widely acknowledged as one of the finest in North America. Interdisciplinarity is another distinguishing feature of UBC. The College for Interdisciplinary Studies (CFIS) supports faculty members to carry out advanced research in 16 schools and institutes and teach more than 600 students in 12 graduate programs. CFIS helps scholars to find solutions to problems that span multiple disciplines.
Apart from all these hallmarks of UBC, what took my breath away when I finally started my UBC life was the natural beauty of the Vancouver campus. Without even visiting any other campus on earth, I can bet that UBC Vancouver holds one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful campus that exists. Pacific Ocean in the backdrop, with wreck beach being minutes away walking distance from the university residences; only UBC students can afford to be in a lovely beach 10 minutes before their classes and then attend the lectures. There are numerous beautiful gardens including the Nitobi memorial garden, rose garden, etc. UBC also has the amazing Museum of Anthropology, a huge botanical garden, its own Museum of biodiversity, and so on. You name anything, and UBC has it! Anyone who has been in UBC will admit that it is a big city itself having residences to markets, to hospital. No wonder, UBC campus is a very popular shooting spot for a lot of Hollywood movies! And for the Harry Potter fans, UBC has its amazing Irving K. Barber Library, which was made in Harry Potter theme and J.K. Rowling herself approved the design and visited the library (specifically the “Ridington room”)! For student recreation and fitness, UBC also has a “Student Recreation Center”, International standard Tennis courts (Recently Davis cup was hosted here), huge Aquatic center (2012 Olympic games were hosted here and it’s free for students!), a fitness gym “Birdcoop”, etc. There is also a new “Student Union Building” named the “Nest” which has beautiful and sustainable building design and caters to students’ needs like food, club events hosting space, etc. All in all, UBC has everything you can imagine and it’s such a huge university that it is guaranteed that you will find your niche and fall in love with its natural beauty mingled with beautiful architectures.
The other important thing that adds to the UBC experience significantly is its location: the city of Vancouver! Vancouver is recognized as one of the finest (also expensive unfortunately compared to other Canadian cities but tuition is still more affordable than US colleges) and greenest cities in the world. It is a very popular tourist attraction city because of its exotic natural beauty where you see Ocean and mountains; lakes and parks, at the same time! Vancouver also has one of the mildest climates among the Canadian cities being situated in the South-West coast of Canada (should be helpful for students who fear freezing cold of Canada). According to the Economist magazine, Vancouver is the world’s third most livable city on planet!Vancouver is a multicultural, vibrant, lively city where you will never be short of places to visit and adventures to begin!
What amazes me most about UBC is the sheer diversity of people living together & helping each-other here. You meet with people all over the world & you realize how big the earth is. I am knowing different perspectives from different people & to think about that is fascinating. UBC with more than 20% of its total student population being international students, has an amazing international community with intellectual curiosity where from even everyday interaction with your peers will add to your education and open-minded knowledge. It’s truly a global university fostering inter-cultural dialogue and bringing brilliant students from more than 140 countries of the world together under the same roof to work collaboratively and solve the problems faced by the world.
UBC also focuses on global citizenship, climate change and sustainability, and intercultural understanding; all of which are reflected in its curriculum and events. UBC is also Canada’s first fair trade campus; it also earned Canada’s first Gold in the sustainability rating system. UBC’s evident commitment to sustainability makes it unique from any other university in the world. We inhabit two of the most beautiful university campuses in the world which also is continuously becoming world’s most sustainable and green campuses. In Vancouver, the innovative EcoTrek energy and water campus retrofit, completed in 2006, continues to save the university approximately $2.6 million annually in energy and water costs. Our global leadership is being recognized. In 2008, UBC was the only Canadian university, and one of only 15 in North America to earn an A-, the highest grade designated that year, from the Sustainable Endowments Institute of Cambridge Massachusetts. Academically, the new Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) on the Vancouver campus is one of the two most sustainable buildings on the planet. What you will see from the outside is the very latest building technology; inside, highly innovative teaching and research is making this a world leader in sustainability scholarship. UBC’s Clean Energy Research Centre uses a multidisciplinary approach and collaboration with industry, government and other academic institutions to discover and implement environmentally friendly solutions. UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning was Canada’s first dedicated planning school. Our Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability enjoys a superb reputation for fostering sustainable futures through integrated research and learning.
UBC is a leader in Community Service Learning, and is among the best in North America in offering experiential learning opportunities to our undergraduate students. Making education more relate-able to real world problems and encouraging students to apply the knowledge outside their classrooms is one of the trademarks of UBC education; preparing it’s students to be the next global leaders and face the world. The combination of volunteer service with academic work has been shown to instill in students a powerful sense of citizenship and civic engagement. Service learning has benefited the B.C. community at large through programs working with the disenfranchised in Vancouver and the elderly in Kelowna. As part of the “Community Based Experiential Learning & Development Plan” program for International scholars; I worked in “Musqueam Youth Program” organized by UBC in the Musqueam community. UBC is situated in the unceded Musqueam territory of first nations people. My responsibility was to take part in weekly workshops of 2 hours with Masquem high-school students and conduct some workshops to help them excel in academics, lives and to encourage them to continue higher education. First Nations culture is another hallmark of UBC. Situated on the respective traditional territories of the Musqueam and Okanagan peoples, UBC is an honoured custodian of a magnificent First Nations cultural heritage.
I was looking for a top-notch university, which has excellent faculty, gives generous funds for undergraduate research and has large international student body, in a beautiful and lively city. Most importantly, it provided me with an “International Leader of Tomorrow” award; a full-ride scholarship enabling me to get world-class education without any financial burden or tension. UBC has one of the most generous scholarship programs through these awards to bring in extra-ordinary promising students across the globe. For all these reasons, UBC is the perfect match for me. Is it for you?
