To: Students in Vancouver and the Okanagan
I am pleased to announce that today the Board of Governors endorsed the launch of UBC’s new strategic plan.
Shaping UBC’s Next Century is the result of thousands of comments and suggestions from all corners of our community.
The plan focuses on three themes that we believe are critical to society: Inclusion, Collaboration and Innovation. It describes the strong connections between these themes and four core areas that define what we do as a public university: People and Places, Research Excellence, Transformative Learning and Local and Global Engagement.
I encourage you to read the plan at https://strategicplan.ubc.ca.
In reading the plan, you will see that it outlines our ambitions through a series of 20 strategies. Recognizing the scale of the task at hand, we have identified four areas that we feel have significant transformational potential:
- Great people — nurturing our global community of faculty, staff and students. Enhancing inclusion within the UBC community and deepening our engagement with Indigenous partners.
- Collaborative clusters — interdisciplinary research clusters focusing on problems of societal importance.
- Innovative pedagogy — enriching experiential learning and research opportunities as ways to master valuable competencies.
- Thriving campus communities — focusing on the wellbeing of our UBC community, including sustainability and connectivity to our campuses.
We have already begun work in support of these strategies, and I am pleased to announce a development in the area of campus connectivity. In addition to endorsing the strategic plan, the Board of Governors has approved UBC’s advocacy strategy to secure a rapid transit line to the Vancouver campus. You can learn more at https://www.ubc.ca/rapidtransit.
As we celebrate the launch of our new plan, I would like to acknowledge the dedication and effort that went into its creation. Whether you attended an open house, completed a survey, contributed to the steering committee or one of the working groups; or whether you worked ‘behind the scenes’ to bring this process to life — I offer my heartfelt thanks.
Thank you for your support and input during this comprehensive process. I look forward to continuing this journey with you.
Professor Santa J. Ono
President and Vice-Chancellor