[4][5] UNBC offered a limited number of courses in rented office space in 1992 and 1993, but its campus was opened officially by Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, on 17 August 1994.

The governance was modeled on the provincial University of Toronto Act 1906, which established a bicameral system of university government comprising a Senate (composed of members of the faculty), responsible for academic policy, and a Board of Governors (composed of members of the community), which exercises exclusive control over financial policy and having formal authority in all other matters.

It is the efficient heating system connected to all the core campus buildings that permits UNBC to pursue its goal of heating the university by the gasification of clean-burning, renewable wood pellets collected from the waste of pine trees killed by the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

The Canfor Winter Garden area has a flowing blue staircase below a ceiling of wooden lattices, representing the west coast rain forests.

Another structural feature, a pair of triangular glass peaks, represents mountains and functions as skylights above the UNBC Bookstore.

The UNBC motto, 'En cha huná, directly translates as "that person also lives" in the Nak'azdli (Fort St. James) dialect of the Indigenous language Dakelh (Carrier).

The Society governs student-led organizations on campus, provides the health and dental plan, advocates for student needs in local transit, and hosts various events.

[20] The UNBC First Nations Centre provides support services for indigenous students, including bringing in elders, counselling, and events such as talking circles and sweat lodges.