Student support

This is a student support page for School of Health Sciences Graduate-level students, including the MA is Disability Management, PhD Students, and MA Community Health Students. It is mainly for Online Distance Students, but some of the information may be useful to others. If you have a question that isn't covered here, please see the contact list at the bottom of the page.


Registration 

First-time students will have registration information sent to them with their letter of admission. Once registered for their first course they will be officially be considered a student at UNBC. It is recommended that all students register for courses as early as possible.

Students are required to submit a registration form every semester. (Semesters start at the beginning of September, January and May of each year).

Registration forms can be found here: Office of the Registrar/ Forms

MA DISM students, note; if you are not taking a specific course in a semester, you must still register for a 'placeholder' course of either the Comprehensive Exam, or Thesis, depending on your intentions. Registering for these does not mean you will be taking the Comprehensive exam or defending a Thesis, it just maintains your status as a Graduate student.

Fees are due on the first day of classes. There are several ways to submit your fees with the most usual being online payment through Student Online Services. You can also check your registration status online. If you have any other questions regarding registration you can call the Office of the Registrar at 250-960-6300.

Registration hints

Print the name of your supervisor in the space to the left of their signature line.

Make sure the CRN# box is filled in. CRN's can be found on the main UNBC site at UNBC Programs

Directed Studies

If you are registering for a directed studies course you must have discussed this with your Academic Advisor/Supervisor and the proposed instructor ahead of time. You will need a course title that does not exceed 30 characters. The title will not be "Directed Studies". Every directed studies course has its own title. You and the instructor will need to provide a course syllabus before you send in the registration form.

Your syllabus must include:

  • instructor’s name
  • credit hours
  • title that does not exceed 30 characters
  • start and end dates
  • and all other information the instructor normally includes as a description of course content and expectations of student.

All directed studies courses require the signature of the instructor. Please see Instruction #3 on the registration form.

If you wish to register in a course that is not on your program of study you should discuss this with your supervisor and if they agree make the required change to your program of study.


Purchasing books

Books for our courses can be purchased through the UNBC Bookstore. Textbook lists can be found on the UNBC Bookstore website. Scroll down the page to the "Buy Textbooks" section and select your semester/term, and click "Go".

You can order books by phone using Visa or Mastercard. The bookstore also accepts cheques and money orders. There is a very reasonable shipping and handling fee depending on where you live and the size of the order.

Bookstore phone: (250) 960-6424


Distance Library Services

Phone: (250) 960-6604 or via email at regional@unbc.ca.
You can request a regional/distance library account from the library web page at http://library.unbc.ca and following the links for Regional/Distance Students or directly at https://library.unbc.ca/services/regional
Graduate Student Orientation
Information on upcoming Graduate Programs events can be found at Office of Graduate Programs
The Northern British Columbia Graduate Students' Society represents graduate students at UNBC.

Phone: (250) 960-5671
Email address is gssoffice@unbc.ca.
Room: 7-168
The society has a web page at www.nbcgss.ca 
E-Mail Lists
Both the Northern BC Graduate Student Society (NBCGSS) and the Office of Graduate Studies maintain mailing lists for graduate students.
If you wish to subscribe or get information about the lists administered by the NBCGSS please contact their office administrator at (250) 960-5671, via email at gssoffice@unbc.ca, or at room 7-168
The Office of Graduate Studies uses the grads-admin mailing list to send out important information including deadlines, announcements of thesis and project defences as well as meetings and conferences. This mail will automatically be sent to your UNBC email address. The Dean’s office will expect you to activate and check this email address on a regular basis. They will not use any other email address. You may forward mail from this account to another account. For help with this contact ISS Help Desk.

UNBC Web Access & PIN
UNBC Online Services:
The UNBC Online Services will allow you access to your personal account at UNBC. You will be able to view your timetable, course descriptions, unofficial transcripts, financial account, holds, and data from your T2202A Canadian Tax form. You can make payments on your student account using Mastercard or Visa. You can also view and update some personal information including your address and telephone number.
To access the UNBC Online Services you will need your student number (9 digits) and pin number (6 digits). When your UNBC account is created at the Office of the Registrar your pin is preset to your birth date in the form ddmmyy. Because of the sensitive nature of the information available you should change this pin number as soon as possible.
 
Changing your PIN:
To change your pin number go to the login page by using the link above or by going to http://www.unbc.ca/students/ and clicking on Student Online Services. From there you click on Course Registration. After entering your User ID (student number) and pin number one of two things will happen. Either you will be taken to the Main Menu or you will be prompted to change your pin. If you get the Main Menu simply select Change PIN and then fill in your old pin and your new pin twice and click on the Change PIN button. If your pin has expired and you are prompted to change it just follow the directions given. You should also create a security question so that if you forget your pin you can reset it yourself.
Note: The system will disable your pin after three unsuccessful login attempts. 


Your UNBC Computer Account
UNBC uses a single username and password combination for most computer systems available to students. This includes on-campus computer labs running MS Windows, Blackboard (used for distance courses), webmail, and Unix machines (available for your use via telnet or ssh) that can be used for student websites on web.unbc.ca.
 
Creating/Changing your UNBC Username and Password:
As a new student, to determine your username and set your password you will need your student number and pin as included in your Admission Package from the Registrar’s Office .
Go to http://www.unbc.ca/its/iss/itsupport/useraccounttools.html and select the option "I know my: Student ID and PIN". Type in the combo of letters or numbers that appear above the text box. Click "Continue". Enter your student number (9 digits) and pin number (6 digits) in the form indicated (your birth date as mmddyy) and click on Create/Change Password.
You will need to read the “Responsibilities and Terms of Use” page before clicking on Accept at the bottom of the page. The top of the next page will list your UNBC username and email address. Write these down and change your password using the form provided.
Your password must be a minimum of 6 characters in length. You are encouraged to pick a password that has numbers, upper and lower case letters. It should not be a dictionary word, portion of a dictionary word, or even a common misspelling of a dictionary word. It should not be a name or anagram of a name or your user ID. It should be as random looking as possible. These are general suggestions for passwords that most people ignore and which most hacking software exploits.

Changing Your UNBC Password:
If you already know your username and password you can change it by going to http://www.unbc.ca/its/iss/itsupport/useraccounttools.html
Select the option that says "I know my: Current User Name and Password". Type in the combo of letters or numbers that appear above the text box. Click "Continue". Type in your current username and password where prompted. Click Continue. Type in your new password in the box provided, and type it again in the second box. Click ok.  
It is a good idea to change your password from time to time and you must change it at least every 400 days. If you fail to change it within this time frame it will automatically be cancelled and you will have to use the pin number procedure listed above to reset it.

UNBC E-mail Account
Every student at UNBC is given an email address. Your address is <username>@unbc.ca where <username> is replaced with your computer account username. The Disability Management Program will use only this address for email communication. We expect each of our students to read their UNBC email on a regular basis.
There are other good reasons to use this account:
  1. The Office of Graduate Studies will only use this address to send announcements to graduate students and they will expect you to check this mail. Almost nobody at UNBC has access to your personal files and hence almost nobody knows your previous email address. They might try and contact you through your UNBC account. Many students have missed messages because they did not check their UNBC address. Once you graduate your email address is still active as an alumni account. This means that you can use this address as a permanent email address and you will not have to update everyone whenever you change jobs or mail providers.
You can have mail forwarded from your UNBC account to your existing account or access it directly. For help forwarding your mail contact Help Desk.
 
Access your UNBC E-mail
To access your UNBC e-mail directly from a web browser go to unbc.ca/information-technology-services/email-students Login with your UNBC user name and password. 

Online learning with Moodle
Moodle is the program that UNBC uses to deliver most distance classes. It can be accessed from most computers that are connected to the Internet and have a current Moodle supported web browser. Some firewall programs can interfere with Moodle.
Note: If you plan on using your employer's computers to access Moodle you must check with your system administrator to determine if such use is permitted.

We currently have a Disability Management Teams site that is available to all Disability Management Students. This Teams site is open year round and allows all students to communicate with each other even if they are not taking the same courses.  It is our hope that as time progresses the students will make suggestions for other ways that this Teams page can be utilized. Please contact Amanda England (AA for the School of Health Sciences) for access to this Teams site.

Contact List
Amanda England
Administrative Assistant
School of Health Sciences
(250) 960-6483
fax: (250) 960-5744
school-healthsciences@unbc.ca
ISS Student Computer Help Desk 
(250) 960-5321
toll free in Canada:
(866) 960-5321 
support@unbc.ca
Office of Grad Programs
(250) 960-5244
UNBC Bookstore
(250) 960-6424 
Distance Library Assistant
(250) 960-6604 
Graduate Student Society
(250) 960-5671 
Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology