Connecting the Region

Connecting the Region to UBC’s Vibrant Centre of Activity

Nearly 80,000 staff, faculty, students and residents are at UBC’s Vancouver campus every day: this daytime population is larger than most BC municipalities. Thousands more people visit the campus each year to attend UBC’s cultural, recreational and academic facilities as well as enjoy its breathtaking natural surroundings and access the UBC hospital. According to a recent survey, 45 per cent of Metro Vancouverites visited UBC’s Vancouver campus in the past six months. The vast majority of respondents who travelled to campus were not attending classes (just 13% said this was the reason), but rather taking advantage of the nearby parks, beaches (19%), museums or cultural amenities (17%). Others were attending a lecture or speech (16%), visiting a health practitioner (13%) or seeing a performance (12%).

UBC already has more jobs and people than anywhere else in the region, except downtown Vancouver and Central Broadway. These numbers will increase as the university grows and nearly 25,000 more people move to the campus in the next two decades.

Connecting the university and campus residents with employment centres, health precincts, research centres, innovation and technology hubs, and community partners will enable UBC to continue to grow into one of the most vibrant and desirable districts in the city. 

Connectivity Will Drive Economic Growth Throughout the Metro Vancouver Region

In the coming decades, Metro Vancouver will grow by more than one million people and over 500,000 jobs. SkyTrain to UBC will be crucial for connecting people, businesses, agencies and organizations across the region that contribute to our economic prosperity and wellbeing.

Connectivity will:

• Enable the exchange of ideas and the transfer of knowledge. Resulting innovation, entrepreneurship and new discoveries can help solve some of the biggest challenges facing the world today.
• Support shared hires, research collaboration and shared use of high-end laboratory equipment. Read about a partnership between Surrey-based NEXE Innovations and researchers at the UBC BioProducts Institute to derive products from renewable resources.
• Facilitate student co-op, internship and work placements, connecting employers with skilled and talented employees. Read about how UBC students doing on-the-job training are contributing to a diverse workforce across Metro Vancouver.

Other cities have reaped the economic benefits of rapid transit to their major universities, enabling partnerships that have generated economic benefits:

• MaRS – University of Toronto and the City of Toronto. Client companies raised over $108 million in 3rd party capital funding, generating $70 million in revenue, creating over 600 new jobs.
• Connect – University of California at San Diego and City of San Diego. The partnership has assisted over 3000 companies in attracting over $10 billion in investment capital.