Advanced Education Minister Amrik Virk today issued the following statement following the University of British Columbia's announcement of Dr. Arvind Gupta as president and vice-chancellor.

"I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the selection of Dr. Arvind Gupta as the new president of UBC.

"I look forward to continuing to work with UBC in providing a world-class education to thousands of students, and I would like to acknowledge the contribution and commitment of Professor Stephen Toope during his years at UBC.

"Dr. Gupta is well regarded in academic, private and public sectors. His recent work at Mitacs - partnering with government and pairing academia with industry in the pursuit of commercialization and knowledge transfer - has been very positive for local industries, universities and especially for students. I trust that he will bring the visionary leadership and management required to lead a large, complex organization such as UBC.

"UBC is a globally ranked, research university, consistently among the top 40 in the world. UBC also is one of the largest universities in Canada - with more than 58,000 students and more than 15,000 faculty and staff at UBC's Vancouver and Okanagan campuses."

Media Contact:

Rodney Porter
Communications Director
Ministry of Advanced Education
250 889-7494