University of British Columbia University of British Columbia Latin: Tuum Est Rank 45th worldwide The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, UBC is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top three universities in Canada. Vancouver campus is situated adjacent to the University Endowment Lands located west of downtown Vancouver. The Okanagan Campus was established in 2005 on what was previously the North Kelowna Campus of Okanagan University College, next to Kelowna International Airport. It was founded in partnership with the Syilx Okanagan Nation, and it lies on their ancestral and unceded territory. 1877, six years after British Columbia joined Canada, the Superintendent of Education, John Jessop, submitted a proposal for the formation of a provincial University. The provincial legislature passed An Act Respecting the University of British Columbia in 1890 but even before the University Act, there had been several attempts at creating a degree-granting university with help from the universities of Toronto and McGill. Columbian College in New Westminster, through its affiliation with Victoria College of the University of Toronto, began to offer university-level credit at the turn-of-the-century. The UBC Library as Canada’s second largest academic library has fifteen branches and divisions across the UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan campuses which has 7.8 million volumes, 2.1 million e-books, more than 370,000 e-journals, and more than 700,000 items in locally produced digital collections. UBC has twelve faculties at Vancouver campus and seven at Okanagan campus. Faculty of Arts is the largest faculty with twenty departments in Vancouver followed by the Faculty of Science which is the second largest with nine departments at the school in 2014, UBC created a new "International Programs" designation separate from the traditional definition of a faculty. To accompany this designation, the university created Vantage College to allow international students who do not meet the English language requirements for general admission to enter the university's transition program. Eight Nobel laureates, 74 Rhodes scholars, 65 Olympians garnering medals, ten fellows in both American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the Royal Society, and 273 fellows to the Royal Society of Canada have been affiliated with UBC. Three Canadian prime ministers, including Canada's first female prime minister, Kim Campbell, and current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, have been also educated at UBC. When it comes to sports, UBC sports team Thunderbirds participate in the U Sports Canada West Universities Athletic Association for most varsity sports. They are the most successful men's soccer program in Canada, having won 13 U Sports championships, eight more than any other school in the country as UBC is having a number of athletic facilities open to both their varsity teams as well as to their students. Organizations, clubs and societies such as Astronomy, Beads and Crafts, Photographic Society and much more that indulge students to be a part of.