UBC has a stellar global reputation

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      Re: "Anna Mendoza: UBC will never be Princeton or Harvard, but it can be a better UBC", March 17

      The writer is quite right in saying international students make vital contributions to the quality of a university education. But she's wrong about some important facts that relate to the University of British Columbia.

      UBC has a stellar global reputation already. Not only do we fill all of our funded spaces for B.C. and Canadian students, but we also attract 10,000 students from 150 countries. 

      The English proficiency scores of incoming UBC international students are on par with the best universities in North America, and these students must meet the same stringent admissions requirements as domestic students.

      UBC provides one of the most intensive first-year orientation programs in Canada for more than 1,000 international students each year and a range of dedicated academic and community support services to help ensure their success.

      For a publicly funded university, UBC also provides solid financial assistance to international students, notably 93 International Scholarships and the 5 MasterCard Foundation Scholarships.   

      To be sure, there is always room for improvement, and we're committed to that. For all of our students.    

      > Angela Redish / UBC vice provost and associate vice president, enrolment and academic facilities

      Comments

      4 Comments

      Corporate campus

      Mar 18, 2014 at 10:56pm

      There's so much PR spin, I'm getting dizzy. UBC could start by cutting away at the absurd and excessive corporate-style salaries and benefits packages for administrators (who often spend their time trying to find how to break the backs of unions on campus), and redirect those dollars to support students and make the university a living wage employer (and start calling out the BC Liberals). It was during my time at UBC that they eliminated the President's Entrance Awards, a significant financial award that helped me cover high (and rising) tuition fees. These wise administrators decided to eliminate this automatic financial award. It's a stingy, corporate campus, increasingly demonstrating that it's more interested in (international) undergrads for their cash-generating potential and fostering a campus culture devoid of any real critical, dare I say radical, thought. Seems to fit the mold of Vancouver these days quite nicely.

      Hazlit

      Mar 19, 2014 at 5:54am

      Dear UBC, someone needs to stop the corporatization of universities. It is ruining the process of education. Academics and the general public are pleading for change. No one does anything, ever. How about if instead of being rich you tried to be moral instead? My respect for you would increase a 1000%

      Love,
      Hazlit

      Businesses

      Mar 19, 2014 at 7:07am

      @ Corporate campus

      This is the same in all universities. When control of the universities was wrested from faculty associations and given to administrators, universities became businesses, not institutions of learning. The only thing of interest to a business is making money, where "educating" people is only the "product" and the "product" must change if it is not raising the bottom line - money. Hence we have seen all universities downgrade standards, both entrance standards and graduating standards, which has diluted the "product" to virtual worthlessness, but as long as enrollment can be kept up and the "customers" charged for the "product", the university administrators are happy.

      In short, universities are no longer about educating so it comes as no surprise that what gets spooned from a university is not much more than advertising the "product".

      BS

      Sep 26, 2014 at 11:56am

      Canadians ought to get spots before any foreigners.

      Spots in high demand areas like medicine etc ought to go all to Canadians.

      We subsidize UBC via Tax dollars, therefore all spots should be filled by us we should not be providing tax payer subsidized education to communist china who are one of the largest foreign groups.