Congratulations and have a great summer

July 4, 2024

This message was sent to faculty, staff and students in Vancouver and the Okanagan.

As we welcome the beautiful summer months, I wanted to take a moment to share some good news and highlight some of the remarkable UBC accomplishments over the past year. Congratulations to everyone in our community for these shared successes!

Largest spring graduating class in UBC history

In Vancouver and the Okanagan, we recently celebrated the largest spring graduating class in UBC history, with 12,510 students graduating across all programs – 10,526 in Vancouver and 1,984 in the Okanagan. This remarkable achievement reflects not only the hard work and dedication of our students but also unwavering support from our faculty, staff, and the entire UBC community. We are immensely proud of each and every graduate and excited to see the positive impact they will make in the world. Congratulations to all our graduates!

Research funding at historical high in 2023/24

I am thrilled to announce that UBC researchers attracted $893 million in research funding from government, industry and non-profit partners in 2023/24. This is over $100 million more than UBC’s previous high of $774 million in 2021/22. This unprecedented level of research funding will enable UBC researchers to continue to seek new insights and discoveries that will improve lives globally.

In addition, we also recently announced a transformative federal investment of $140 million to support projects for Canada’s Immuno-Engineering and Biomanufacturing Hub, led by UBC. This investment will ensure Canada is ready to respond to future pandemics, and will also generate the talent and industry collaborations needed to foster and sustain a world-class life sciences sector here in BC.

Most successful fundraising and alumni engagement year ever

In March, we concluded UBC’s most successful fundraising and alumni engagement year ever with $354.6 million raised – almost 50% more than last year’s total – and more than 104,000 alumni engaged through 1.9 million interactions, also record highs.

We can already see the impact and the promise of what is possible through the FORWARD campaign and the support of our donor and alumni community. For example, over 6,500 donors have contributed $33.5 million to ‘FORWARD for Students’ for affordability-related programs and services to support students when and where they need it most.

Balanced operating budget for 2024/25

UBC remains in a balanced financial position despite unfavourable economic conditions and other challenges. While the budgetary situation is tighter than in the past, at this time we continue to be able to make investments in our key priority areas of teaching and learning, research and innovation, and providing holistic support for our students. We also remain committed to driving positive social change, including advancing our commitment to Truth and Reconciliation and our equity, diversity and inclusion goals, as well as addressing the challenge of climate change.

New Chancellor, Board Chair and senior leaders

I am so pleased to welcome our new Chancellor, Judy Rogers, and new Board Chair, Miranda Lam. They are two truly outstanding individuals who will serve UBC well as the university moves forward in fulfilling our academic mission. Over the past two weeks, we also appointed Melanie Stewart as Vice-President, External Relations, Jan Hare as Dean of the Faculty of Education, Lalitha Raman-Wilms as Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Suzie Currie as Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation, at UBC Okanagan. Please learn more about these new appointments here:

Strategic plan refresh

Finally, as announced yesterday (https://broadcastemail.ubc.ca/2024/07/03/refreshing-our-strategic-plan-in-2024-25/), we will soon be launching a process to revisit and refresh the university’s strategic plan.

Since the launch of Shaping UBC’s Next Century in 2018, UBC has made great strides in advancing the plan, but the world has changed a lot since 2018 and there are opportunities to be identified and seized.

By refreshing the plan and defining a series of priorities and actions for the next three to five years, largely focused on our academic and research goals, we can celebrate and build upon our successes in the pursuit of excellence in research, teaching and learning. There will be opportunities for the broader UBC community to feed into the process beginning this fall and throughout the 2024/25 academic year.

Acknowledging ongoing challenges

There have been challenges, of course. I am thinking of the federal government’s announced cap on international students and the uncertainty and concern it created for students. We worked closely with the provincial government and were able to ensure that all new international undergraduate students enrolling at UBC have access to a federal student permit.

The conflict in Israel and Palestine continues to evoke complex and difficult emotions on our campuses. These issues have affected universities across the country and we are continuing to prioritize everyone’s safety and to seek a path forward in the spirit of respectful dialogue.

I also want to acknowledge that we are still in a post-pandemic world and that many in our community are facing personal challenges. I take this opportunity to remind everyone that UBC has extensive support services for students, faculty and staff and encourage anyone in need to reach out.

In closing, I would like to encourage everyone to take and enjoy some time off this summer. I will certainly take my own advice and recharge for a few weeks. Again, my sincere thanks and all the best for a wonderful summer.

Benoit-Antoine Bacon
President and Vice-Chancellor