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Located on a short flight or ferry from Vancouver, the city of Victoria is world famous for its great beauty, warm weather, cultural activities, and brilliant variety of restaurants. No surprise the city attracts over three and a half million overnight visitors each year.

Nestled in a green, gently sloping area on the edge of the city, is the University of Victoria one of Canada's leading comprehensive universities. With more than a thousand world-class professors and an international reputation for paving the way in innovative and interdisciplinary research, international students choosing UVic are ensured a superb world-class education.

Courtesy: CUAC

The two most popular UVic programs among new Bangladeshi students are its highly regarded Bachelor in Commerce and Bachelor of Engineering. However, students have many other areas of focus to choose from in the humanities, medical sciences, political science, environmental issues, creative writing, or nursing. Whatever your area of interest, the university's ten separate faculties offer a wide range of choice.

And for anyone interested in earning directly career-related experience as well, the university is also home to the nation's third largest co-operative education (or “Co-op”) program. Active since the 1970's, UVic's Co-op program offers students the opportunity to learn and earn making it very popular among international newcomers. Particularly for any students hoping to work and/or gain permanent residency in Canada post graduation, Co-op is a great way to up the chances of finding future employment in Canada, or anywhere else in the world.

For those interested in learning more about attending the University of Victoria or another Canadian institution a good place to start is www.canada123.org. Students and families can also visit the Canadian University Application Centre (or 'CUAC') office located on Gulshan Road. On Friday, October 28th, UVic will attend along with other Canadian university representatives, a special Canadian University Education Fair, at The Westin Dhaka - where UVic's Associate Vice-president of Student Affairs will be ready to answer all your questions with typical Canadian helpfulness. This event, however, is by INVITATION ONLY. For those interested, please email Dhaka@canada123.org , or phone at 02.8826445. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Why UVic?
“My reason for choosing UVic is totally because of my program requirement. I was a BBA student at North South University and when I wanted to transfer my credits, I figured out that UVic's Peter B. Gustavson School of Business is one of the top ranked business schools in the world renowned for its unique style of providing education which is international, integrative, innovative, and socially responsible. All these things really encouraged me to go for University of Victoria.”

On first impressions:
“To be honest I was very excited and at the same time a bit scared about the fact that I was going to a new place, new university, and most importantly to a new country which has a very different culture and life style from my own. However I must say that I was really impressed about the way the students, the professors and all the office staff welcomed me to UVic along with all the other international students from all over the world. The university even held special sessions for us about how to deal with our transition to life in Canada, which really helped us to understand the Canadian culture. Everyone was very cordial and it never seemed that I was a 'new student'.”

On his program and professors:
“UVic has its own way of providing education, which really fascinates me. For example, the main purpose of my program is to create global leaders and not just BComm or local business graduates, so with this aim in mind UVic works to give students a global mindset. A very big part of our program is experiential learning, and for that UVic has a special Co-op program. This is a very big opportunity for all the students to work for big companies, both multinational and local, and gain the experience of working in Canada and having the opportunity of putting classroom learning into practice at real offices and companies. The professors are also very helpful and always give 100% to provide the best education to their students most of whom they know by name. The professors believe in 'two-way communication' in learning, so classes are always very interactive. They want to hear what the students have to say about any topic before giving their own lecture, and in-class debate is highly encouraged.”

Advice for other international students:
“First of all it is very important that the student knows what he/she wants to study, and then chooses the university according to that… Luckily, with Canadian universities, I learned that most are among the world's top ranked schools even after I did a lot of research comparing them with different universities in the USA and Australia. This, combined with the fact that Canada is one of the best places to live, inspired me to apply for Canadian programs.”

* Please note that these are approximate costs only, and may differ slightly between programs and years.