ORIGINS
The School of Engineering on the Okanagan campus of the University of British Columbia began in 2005 with an enrollment of 67 undergraduate students, 5 faculty and one staff member. By 2015, the School had an enrollment of nearly 900 undergraduates, 200 graduate students guided by 53 faculty with the assistance of 25 staff. The meteoric growth has continued. Only three years later, undergraduate enrollment is nearly 1400 and graduate student enrollment is over 300.
The foresight and ambitions of the administrators (such as Martin Wedepohl, R.A. Fletcher, Michael Issacson and Spiro Yannacopoulos among others) have proven correct. The Okanagan valley and the University of British have benefited from the addition of the School of Engineering in so many ways from research to community growth.
The School is not resting on its past successes. Over the coming years, plans are in place to address the sustained growth it has been experiencing.
ACCREDITATION
Canadian undergraduate programs in engineering are accredited by the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB). There are 279 accredited engineering programs at 44 higher education institutions across the country including the programs offered at the University of British Columbia’s School of Engineering on its Okanagan campus.
All three programs are fully accredited and scheduled for their regular review by a visiting CEAB team later this year. Preparation for the review have been on-going for most of the last year. Review materials include examples of student work and documentation that outlines how the School is providing its students the desired engineering attributes upon completion of their degrees. That justification is also outlined in all course syllabi.
The School has an internal accreditation committee that coordinates the collection of materials and data in order to prepare a report for the CEAB.
As all engineering programs evolve over time, this committee is also tasked with identifying areas for improvement and documenting changes that have been implemented to ensure that the needs of the engineering profession and society are met.
Feedback, especially from students, is paramount to the success of our program. We would encourage you to reach out to Samantha Luckow (CEAB & Graduate Attributes Coordinator) or Meghan Lochhead (Curriculum, Accreditation & Transfer Student Coordinator) at samantha.luckow@ubc.ca or megan.lochhead@ubc.ca if you wish to share your insight or observations so that it can be shared with the accreditation committee and School of Engineering’s leadership team.