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. Over 297,000 students were enrolled in post-secondary institutions in British Columbia in the 2019-2020 academic year.
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) was a system-wide application portal (developed by BCcampus, a publicly funded organization whose role is to support higher education by providing leadership in the use of Information and Communications Technology, that allows people to apply for admission.
In 2015, the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training (AEST) initiated a dialogue with the public post-secondary sector to explore a common online application platform for students applying to public post-secondary education in B.C., similar to those used in other jurisdictions. EducationPlannerBC has replaced ApplyBC.ca as the new common online application portal for Universities in British Columbia
History
Establishment and the first university in BC (1890 – 1929) Higher education in British Columbia started in 1890 with the first attempt by the British Columbia government to establish a provincial university, An Act Respecting the University of British Columbia that established the first convocation of the "one university for the whole of British Columbia for the purpose of raising the standard of higher education in the Province, and of enabling all denominations and classes to obtain academical degrees." In the same year, Whetham College opened as a small, independent institute located in downtown Vancouver that was intent of preparing "its students not only for the Army, Navy and Civil Service examinations and for Matriculation Examinations in any university or college, but also for first and second year examinations in Arts leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts in any university;" unfortunately, it closed only three years due to financial difficulties. A second independent post-secondary institution opened in 1892 known as the Columbian Methodist College. It was opened by the Methodist Church of Canada in New Westminster, and it was affiliated with Victoria College of the University of Toronto and offered courses towards Arts & Theology degrees.
McGill University affiliated with a second British Columbian high school in 1903, Victoria High School which was renamed Victoria College later to become the University of Victoria. In 1904 & 1905 McGill University received permission to improve and expand the University's course offerings in British Columbia. Two acts were passed to enable this; An Act Respecting McGill University, which gave McGill University permission to establish a University College in British Columbia for the higher education of men and women, and An Act to Incorporate the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning of British Columbia, which established the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning of British Columbia. This institution would undertake the responsibility of establishing a college anywhere in British Columbia. Vancouver College in 1906 was formalized as McGill University College of British Columbia; then it began offering first and second year courses in Arts and Applied Sciences.
Victoria College was brought under the direction of the Royal Institution in 1908, and it offered first and second year Arts courses. In this same year, the provincial government made a second attempt to establish a provincial university. They succeeded with An Act to Establish and Incorporate a University for the Province of British Columbia. It would be called the University of British Columbia, and it would be located in the western part of Point Grey. However, plans to start construction on the campus for the new university had to be postponed due to lack of funding. Meanwhile, McGill University agreed to continue providing higher education through Victoria College.