UBC has emerged as a global leader in applying research findings to improve teaching practices.
We continually strive to advance educational technologies and to provide a world-class experience to a broad range of learners.
Explore the initiatives that are currently transforming the learning environment at UBC:
The Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic, launched this fund to provide significant new resources to advance academic excellence and strengthen UBC in the years to come. Since 2016, UBC has devoted a portion of its annual revenue towards initiatives to help the university attract the best faculty and students, support world-changing research, and deliver an exceptional learning experience. The fund supports initiatives that will further differentiate UBC as a top-tier global institution.
It allows us to be nimble in the rapidly changing landscape of higher education, and enhances our support of research-informed transformation of teaching and learning at UBC. These targeted investments will draw the world’s top scholars and researchers, as well as a diverse class of exceptional graduate and undergraduate students who are intellectually curious, academically gifted and socially engaged. The Provosts at UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan consult broadly with the academic community on how to prioritize allocations of the fund and report annually on the impact of our investments.
For more information about the fund on the Vancouver campus and its governance, see the terms of reference.
The Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) was created in 1991 to enrich student learning by supporting innovative and effective educational enhancements
As a driver of teaching and learning innovation, the annual Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) call for proposals awards approximately $2.5-million to support both strategic large-scale and grassroots innovation and enhancement projects. Each year more than 50 projects are funded, many of which involve students directly in the development, delivery and evaluation of projects.
Annual calls are initiated in June for strategic projects and September for innovation projects. To find out how to apply, the criteria and timeline for adjudication, as well as browse details of hundreds of funded projects, visit https://tlef.ubc.ca/
UBC Health is a partnership of all academic health programs at UBC. It promotes and facilitates internal collaboration, and provides a coordinated interface with the developing province-wide Academic Health Science Network.
UBC Health supports the establishment and pursuit of common goals while respecting the autonomy of the distinct health disciplines. The primary outcomes are expected to include:
- Enhanced performance in priority areas of cross-sector research and translation to patient care;
- Strengthened support for health research through improved provincial data access and management, advocacy around favourable research funding policies, and the provision of cross-cutting infrastructure including sequencing, high-performance computing and grant facilitation;
- Education innovation in areas that are crucial to practitioner and system development, including integrated curricula, inter-professional education, joint programs such as biomedical engineering and applied programs such as health informatics;
- Targeted operational integration to strengthen capabilities and drive efficiencies, initially in Finance and IT, creating a platform for broader sector cooperation and synergy;
- Leadership in shaping sector dialogue and mobilizing activity around core systemic issues and opportunities, including clinical placements and the evolution of primary care.
Importantly, UBC Health is intended to complement the activities of individual faculties and schools through its focus on tasks of mutual importance that require intensive functional, subject and systemic co-ordination.
Flexible learning is an evolving initiative overseen by the Provost. It incorporates evidence-based, technology-enabled teaching methods across all UBC faculties to improve the learning experience for students. For more information about funding for flexible learning projects through the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund and other resources for teachers and students, visit UBC’s flexible learning website.
Our recent efforts to expand Career and Personal Education (CPE) at UBC originated with the 2013 Flexible Learning Strategy, with a goal to enhance the reach and relevance of high-quality academic offerings for career and personal advancement.
Our courses and programs continue UBC’s long tradition of supporting lifelong learning, bringing our faculty expertise to a wide range of learners. Learn more about how career and personal education is developing at UBC.
UBC Wellbeing is a collaborative effort to make the University a better place to live, work and learn through a systems-wide approach to embedding wellbeing across our campuses.
Effective teaching practices have the potential to support student wellbeing and help our students achieve their full potential. Creating positive classrooms, lecture halls and research labs where students feel supported and connected helps to promote and enhance learning outcomes and equip them for success.
UBC Wellbeing has a collection of teaching and learning resources to help faculty members integrate practices that promote wellbeing into their learning environments.
UBC is undertaking a multi-year journey to transform our Finance, Human Resources, and Student Administrative processes in support of UBC’s Strategic Plan.
The IRP will transform the way learners interact with institutional processes such as admissions, curriculum management, learning assessments, finances and graduation. The result will be a user friendly and mobile-enabled administrative platform that will benefit the learner experience at UBC.
UBC has invested significantly in transforming our learning spaces to support teaching and learning that is accessible, immersive, collaborative, personalized and technology-enriched. Learn more
The Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISoTL) is a research institute within the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT), that supports research and reflection on teaching and learning, with the aim to inform and enhance practice, both locally and internationally. Its aim is to deepen engagement of faculty members and experts in educational research from across campus to evaluate evidence-based practices in Higher Education, and it advocates for an effective reciprocity between research and practice. To find out more, visit the ISoTL website.
The First Nations House of Learning (FNHL) is a coordinating and strategic planning unit for Indigenous programs and initiatives at UBC. FNHL works to support successful interactions between Indigenous academic, cultural and community programs at UBC and throughout the broader Indigenous community. It directs the operations of the First Nations Longhouse that serves as a centre for Indigenous students across UBC and as a programming space for Indigenous programs and events.
Teaching and Learning Highlights
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