Why are your textbooks (course materials) so expensive? It is not fair.

We understand that textbooks are expensive and that this is a major concern on campuses across North America and not just UBC.  

Textbooks are specifically written for university and college students.  Authors spend years writing course books and publishers invest time and money into editing, printing and distributing the titles.  Most textbooks have very small print runs, so unlike a popular novel the cost per copy is high.

Faculty and instructors select the textbooks that they believe are best suited to student success.  The Bookstore’s team of experts sources the textbooks and makes sure that we have the right edition and format available for sale at the beginning of each term. 

Ok, so what have you actually done to address this issue? What is the UBC Bookstore doing to lower costs?

1. Introduction of rental books - rental saves up to 55%. We were one of the first campuses in Canada to introduce rental books. This enables a student to rent used books at 55% OFF the new price every time (and new books at 45% OFF the price of a new book). This means that if a new book is $100, then a used rental book is $45. If you spend $1000 on new books, then you could rent them all for $450. Our aim is to rent the majority of books in-store that are over $50 (exceptions include custom course packages and ebooks).  Our in-store rentals are augmented by 3000 + titles available online through our partner at: www. ubcbookstore.rentsbooks.com (Vancouver) or www.ubcobookstore.rentsbooks.com (Okanagan).We are encouraging faculty to use books for several terms so that we are in a position to rent even more titles next term.

2. Choices. As well as rentals and new books, we offer three other choices of books to take into account differing budgets: used, ebooks and custom course packs.

3. Buyback. We offer you the opportunity to sell your books back to us throughout the year. We try to buy back as many books as we can – if a book is being used for another term on campus you will get 50 per cent of the new cost; if the book is not being used the next term, but is still a current edition you will receive a wholesale price.   Again, we are encouraging faculty to use books on campus for multiple terms so that we can buy back as many books as possible.

4. We are going to start providing you with comparison pricing information on our website starting in September 2012, so that you can see which competitors provide which books, whether they are in stock and at what price, in a completely transparent manner. You can then decide where to buy.

5. Student classifieds. Via our website, we offer you the opportunity to connect with your fellow students and sell your books to each other, without our involvement at all. You sell at your price.

6. Social media. Sometimes students post books for sale online on UBC channels. We allow these posts on our Facebook – we try not to remove any posts unless they contain rude, unspeakable words.

7. What does the UBC Bookstore give back that other retailers don’t?

Yes, we’re interested in growing our business and continuing to operate successful retail operation. The DIFFERENCE between us and other retailers is WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING.

We don’t work for a company’s shareholders or board of trustees, we work for the students, faculty and staff right here at UBC. We work to bring cost saving textbook options, fair returns policies, discounts on cutting-edge technology, and a wide array of classroom supplies, resources and services to make sure our students are prepared in the classroom.

We bring student employment (paying fair wages) and professional development. We provide sponsorships and donations to student and community organizations and events. We contribute to the arts venues across campus, learning and literacy programming and author events.

While ‘they’ are looking for opportunities to increase revenue and report higher numbers in their quarterly reports, we are giving it back to our community.