Maclean’s released its 2025 edition of the Best Universities in Canada, and while some of the well-known schools dominated their main lists – looking at you U of T! — there were some smaller shoutouts.
Among Canada’s top universities is a small university in Northern B.C., tucked away in the mountains with beautiful scenery and a great education to boot.
On Maclean’s list of Canada’s Best Primarily Undergraduate Universities for 2025, which ranked universities which are “largely focused on undergraduate education, with relatively fewer graduate programs and graduate students,” this B.C. school came in second place.
Mount Allison University took first place in the ranking, but the University of Northern British Columbia came in at #2.
With a $6,898 tuition, this university has 1,656 full-time undergraduates and 973 part-time ones, and 554 full-time graduates and 113 part-time graduates.
The tight-knit school got some serious praise in Maclean’s ranking. “Where else but at the University of Northern British Columbia can you study in a teaching and learning centre with a 360-degree panoramic view that stretches all the way to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains?”
The picturesque campus is in Prince George, and sustainability is at the forefront of the education programs and the design.
“The school’s heating system, which uses biomass from sawmills, has earned environmental accolades from afar, and the Wood Innovation Research Laboratory is recognized as a passive house, meaning it uses significantly less energy than a standard building,” the ranking said.
While UBC in Vancouver gets a lot of the hype when it comes to West Coast education, UNBC has its own appeal. In between classes wander through the David Douglas Botanical Garden Society garden, which is Canada’s northernmost botanical garden, and enjoy the uniquely stunning scene.
Of course, the education is also top-notch to earn a place in the ranking
“To further serve the north, UNBC expanded with campuses in Terrace, Quesnel and Fort St. John, and also offers courses through an agreement with the Wilp Wilxo’oskwhl Nisga’a Institute in Gitwinksihlkw. Students at all campuses benefit from a high degree of access to their professors,” it said.
It added that in 2021, “UNBC launched the northern baccalaureate nursing program at its Fort St. John campus, while education programs were expanded with a revamp in Terrace and a newly established program in Quesnel. Meanwhile, a master of applied science in engineering was launched two years ago and the family nurse practitioner program recently doubled its capacity from 20 to 40 students.”
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