Whenever I’m at the UBC Okanagan campus, I can feel the excitement and the energy. It’s definitely an exciting time to be part of UBC, especially UBC Okanagan.
A few weeks ago, the university’s Board of Governors enthusiastically endorsed a fascinating report from leadership at UBC Okanagan outlining the next 20 years of transformation for UBC in the British Columbia Interior region.
Since it opened in 2005, UBC Okanagan has established itself as an innovative hub for research and learning. It is a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community deeply committed to Indigenous partnerships and welcomes students and faculty from around the world.
As a young campus of a globally influential university entering its next century, big thinking and bold ambitions are required to set the Okanagan campus on its long-term course toward even greater impact and service to the people and communities of BC.
Among the many attributes UBC Okanagan aspires to develop by 2040, it’s anticipated that the Okanagan campus will:
- Be a thriving UBC community of over 20,000 people including 18,000 students and 500 tenure-track faculty members
- Be recognized for its historic partnership with the Okanagan Nation and will be a leader in Canada in the proportion of Indigenous faculty and students
- Have annual research funding of $100 million (up from $21.9 million in 2017/18) with projects reflecting a strong, continued commitment to fundamental research and scholarship, and to partnerships that translate research into practice
The future of UBC Okanagan is guided by UBC’s Strategic Plan: Shaping UBC’s Next Century, as well as the UBC Okanagan campus master plan, and other campus visioning and planning processes completed over the past several years.
This exploration of the future reflects ongoing discussions at the university about the opportunity for UBC presented by the Okanagan campus and what needs to be done to realize an ambitious future for the university and its role in the region over the next couple of decades.
Helping to captivate our imagination is a brief video illustrating what the campus looks like today, and how it might look in 2040 – with 20 years of intensive development adding more than a million square feet of new space for learning, research, partnerships and housing.
View the UBC Okanagan 2040 “fly-over” video
I’m looking forward to spending more time at the UBC Okanagan campus and engaging with the students, faculty and staff there. I encourage you to learn more about UBC Okanagan and its goals over the next two decades. More information is available at ok.ubc.ca/future.
Professor Santa J. Ono
President and Vice-Chancellor