More Student Housing For UBCO

University of BC Okanagan has announced plans to build two new students residences, adding 440 beds to the campus inventory.

The university currently has space for 1,680 students to live on campus, but needs more housing as it expects to go over 10,000 students this fall.

“The space we currently have allows us to meet the demand from our first-year students,” says Associate Vice President, Finance and Operations Rob Einarson. “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, which is a very high benchmark when compared to other Canadian universities.”

While it may seem like that leaves 75 per cent of students without housing, Shannon Dunn, director of business operations, says the demand for on-campus housing is offset by the fact that about 25 per cent of students come from the region and many others decide to live in other parts of the city.