Higher Education in British Columbia

Higher education in British Columbia is delivered by 25 publicly funded institutions that are composed of eleven universities, eleven colleges, and three institutes. This is in addition to three private universities, five private colleges, and six theological colleges. There are also an extensive number of private career institutes and colleges.

In 2007, the population of British Columbia (BC) stood at 4,383,000. Approximately 433,000 people were enrolled in public post-secondary institutions in BC during the 2006-2007 academic year. More than 17,250 identified themselves as Aboriginal students and approximately 10,500 were international students. In the 2011 calendar year, 151,774 applications took place through BCcampus, a publicly funded organization whose role is to support higher education by providing leadership in the use of ICT (Information and Communications Technology).

Each of the province's post-secondary institutions sets its own admission requirements. Generally, successful graduation from high school, with the required academic prerequisites, is needed for admission to programs. Special consideration may be given to mature applicants, Aboriginal peoples, and people with disabilities. Information about admissions and prerequisites is available from the registrar's office of each institution. ApplyBC.ca (formerly PASBC) is a system-wide application portal (developed by BCcampus) that allows people to apply for admission.