UBC will add 440 student housing units at the Okanagan campus in Kelowna by fall 2021. The UBCO campus is pictured in this aerial photo.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/UBCO
March 13, 2019 - 9:59 AM
KELOWNA - With the student population at UBC Okanagan expected to reach 10,000 this fall, the push is on to go beyond the university’s commitment to have on-campus housing for all first year students.
That’s why the university announced today, March 13, that 440 new student housing units will be built at a cost of $70 million, although they’re not expected to be complete until the fall of 2021. The new student housing would be in addition to the 1,680 housing units currently on campus.
“The space we currently have allows us to meet the demand from our first-year students,” Associate Vice-President of Finance and Operations, Rob Einarson, said in the news release. “Ultimately, we’d like to be in a position of being able to offer on-campus housing to about 25 per cent of our student population.”
There is also significant private housing nearby, the university said.
The new housing will come in two six-storey towers.
One, called the Skeena, will have “modified traditional bedrooms” with lounges, informal study space, an activity room and laundry, according to the release. The other, to be called the Nechako, will have the bottom two storeys as a 500-seat dining hall, study space, a fitness room and gathering spaces.
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News from © iNFOnews, 2019