Northern BC students will soon be able to complete their engineering program closer to home.
The provincial government has announced $400,000 in startup funding this year for new civil and environmental engineering degree programs at UNBC. The province says the money will ramp up to support 280 spaces by 2022-23, with 70 graduates a year expected by 2023.
The College of New Caledonia is getting $250,000 in 2017-18 to develop a new civil engineering technologist program. By 2021-22, the program will have 50 spaces with 25 graduates per year by 2022. It will be the first engineering technologist program in BC to be offered north of Kamloops.
“These new engineering programs will bring tremendous value to the North, while strengthening UNBC’s presence in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields,” says Daniel Weeks, president of UNBC. “We know that when we train students in the North, they stay in the North, further enhancing our capacity as knowledge leaders, while helping spur tremendous economic activity and collaboration with other post-secondary institutions.
The province says total startup funding for technology programs this year is $4.4 million and is expected to increase to $42 million by 2023.
