Maclean's magazine has once again rated UNBC the best in the west, now for the second year running. Rob van Adrichem, the Director of Media and Public Relations, felt it was a real positive. The big thing that UNBC was proud of was that those universities that are ahead of us are much older, giving them a much bigger head start over the fairly young UNBC.

     As for improving on the ranking, which is based off of different areas such as the size of the library collection per student and average entering grades, there are definitely some areas where UNBC doesn't do so well. One of these areas is the proportion of graduating students which isn't that high. These areas that UNBC doesn’t do quite so well in are those they wish to focus more on. It is not all about the rank though.

     Rob doesn't think UNBC will ever hit the number one spot simply because of the kind of university UNBC is and wants to be. It's the things which define UNBC that the school is investing time and money in but which are not things Maclean's ranking is based upon. These things include regional centres, the expansion of athletics, such as the new Northern Sport Centre, due to open toward the end of 2007, and the percentage of aboriginal students attending UNBC, which is the highest in BC. These kinds of things still make UNBC a better university but don't increase its ranking. Due to the concentration of effort on these items UNBC is focusing on its own goals and identity rather than on being ranked number one. This is where we need to look as well when newly installed president Don Cozzetto makes choices, they need to be a mixture of the two but with a stronger emphasis on the latter. Cozzetto has the new challenge of making choices for the school, trying to balance the national ranking and prestige of the school with the school's own interests.

     The biggest problem with the Maclean's ranking is that it does not recognize the different methods of different universities. UNBC makes decisions to make UNBC better not necessarily as a response to Maclean's. Despite it being a desirable ranking, most students don't choose UNBC because it's the best in the west; they choose it because of the things it can offer such as the regional centres and smaller class sizes.

     "It's good to be best in the west and most of all it gives us a profile on a national stage that doesn't get much attention normally in Prince George and Maclean's give us that." Rob explained.

     "Also for the people in the community who have helped make UNBC what it is, it's a tremendous validation for them because if you're in Prince George you don't often get a chance to have a magazine based in Toronto say, 'Hey that's pretty good' and it's a sense of pride for them".