This message was sent to faculty and staff in Vancouver and the Okanagan.
As UBC passes the halfway point on its strategic plan, Shaping UBC’s Next Century, the time is right for us to revisit it and define the university’s priorities for the next three to five years. A process involving broad community consultations will be announced in the fall.
The ten-year plan entitled Shaping UBC’s Next Century was launched in 2018. Since then, UBC has made great strides in advancing all aspects of the plan. At the same time, the last five years have seen substantial change in the world, including a global pandemic, increased geo-political tensions, and the rise of AI, to name just a few.
By revisiting and refreshing our strategic plan, we can now celebrate and build upon our successes, apply lessons learned, adapt to a changing higher education landscape, and continue our trajectory of transformation, propelling UBC to even greater heights. Notwithstanding challenges, there is no question that the future is bright for UBC.
To be clear, the intention is not to replace our strategic plan, but to define a series of priorities and actions for the next three to five years, largely focused on UBC’s academic and research goals – at a time when both higher education and our broader society is faced with so many challenges.
We propose to focus on three broad interrelated objectives:
- Envision what kind of university UBC strives to be over the next 25 years, to 2050.
- Define shorter-term priorities and objectives over the next three to five years, especially with regards to our core academic and research mission.
- Continue to mobilize and support the achievement of existing institutional plans such as the Indigenous Strategic Plan, Strategic Equity and Anti-Racism (StEAR) Framework, as well as Faculty-level plans.
A steering committee comprising UBC’s two Provosts (in Vancouver and the Okanagan) and the Vice-President, Research & Innovation will be guiding the process, with support from a project team. The aim is to have a refreshed plan by the end of the 2024/25 academic year.
Again, there will be opportunities for the broader UBC community to feed into the process throughout the year. More details will be shared when we are back for the new academic year.
In the meantime, I hope you all have a restful and wonderful summer.
Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor