The University of British Columbia
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 986001255
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- University or Technological Institute
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,797,284,167
- Expenses
- $2,707,290,736
- Assets
- $6,247,061,696
- Liabilities
- $3,460,350,599
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
49 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Benoit-Antoine Bacon (Governor President and Vice-Chancellor)
- Gage Averill (Provost and Vice-President Academic pro tem)
- Ainsley Carry (Vice President Students)
- Adam Charania (Vice President)
- David Shorthouse (Executive Director Academic Portfolio Initiatives)
- Hillary Gosselin (Associate Vice President Development)
Highest reported compensation
- Dermot Kelleher (Professor tenure Faculty of Medicine): $567,994 total reported compensation
- Benoit-Antoine Bacon (Governor President and Vice-Chancellor): $522,203 total reported compensation
- Zu-Hua Gao (Professor tenure Faculty of Medicine): $489,489 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The University of British Columbia is a global centre for teaching, learning and research. UBC embraces innovation and transforms ideas into action, opening doors of opportunity for people with the curiosity, drive and vision to shape a better world. UBC provides clinical education to Faculty of Medicine students at 80+ training sites across BC. UBC’s two regional bases in Hong Kong and India make local connections and elevate partnerships for research, learning and capacity development. Alumni, Faculty and Staff. Please use the **Graduate Degree Programs listing** to find master and doctoral programs at UBC. It provides the most important information about admission requirements, deadlines, funding sources and tuition, research supervisors, statistical data and career outcomes. Each program profile has a contact form to reach out to individual programs with specific questions....
What it reported doing in 2024
The University offers post-secondary education to the general public. The University is also involved in research activities museums conference center performing arts and community services. The amounts reported including earnings and expenditures for goods services bookstore housing and conference center.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 89% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and a relatively small share of voting board members are independent.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 90
- Transparency & Controls: 72
- Accountability: 71
- Sustainability: 57
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 90.7%; rating input score 91
- Program expense ratio: 92.7%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: $47.49 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 74; 74th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Claims monitoring procedures: Limited
- Requires narrative reports: Limited
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Limited
- Conducts site visits: Limited
- Requires grant agreements: Limited
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 97.8%; rating input score 98; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 58.3%; rating input score 58; 16th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 3.2%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.31; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.55; rating input score 32; 32nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0.3%; rating input score 88; 88th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.5% per year; rating input score 100; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.9% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 1.2% per year; rating input score 100; 11th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 7 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 90.7% of revenue deployed · 92.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 14 of 24 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $2.5B in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $568K · 49 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $8.7M reported
- Consistency: 47 of 48 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 10 filed schedules · includes foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 5 filing years from 2020 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 23 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Independent voting board scored 58/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 32/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.