Advancing Education Renewal Fund

Source: https://academic.ubc.ca/awards/advancing-education-renewal-fund Parent: https://academic.ubc.ca/academic-initiatives/funding-opportunities

Education Renewal—strategy 11 of UBC's strategic plan—seeks to facilitate sustained program renewal and improvements in teaching effectiveness, with particular emphasis on expanding opportunities for graduate students to learn about teaching and broadening their learning as they prepare for their careers.

In support of strategy 11 of our strategic plan: Shaping UBC's Next Century, and with funding from UBC Vancouver’s Academic Excellence Funds, a total of $1.5-million over two years was earmarked for UBCV to support projects that advance one of the following three identified focus areas:

1. Improvements in teaching effectiveness;
2. Program redesign: Developing program-level outcomes; and
3. Reimagining and strengthening graduate programs.

Call for Proposals

An open call for proposals was launched in late 2019, inviting submissions from faculty members, staff, postdocs and students. Applications were reviewed by an adjudication committee, who provided funding recommendations to the Provost and VP Academic, UBC Vancouver, guided by the following overarching principles:

• Stewardship of Academic Excellence Funds: Each proposal will provide a reasonable and justifiable budget as well as timely and transparent reporting to ensure prudent use of the Academic Excellence Funds.
• Transformative learning: Proposals recommended for funding will significantly contribute to the enhancement of teaching and/or learning, particularly in education renewal.
• Sustainability: Projects will result in sustainable benefits to programs, departments or units.
• Equity, diversity and inclusion: Call activities and proposals will support UBC’s commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion.
• Outcomes-based approach: Proposals will identify concrete objectives, and expected outcomes will be measured and monitored over time to help projects meet their objectives and communicate impact.
• Comparative assessment: An adjudication committee will review and assess proposals in order of merit using these principles, as well as evaluation criteria for each focus area.

Funded Projects

A total of 32 proposals were submitted, of which 21 were funded – a success rate of 66% – with representation from the Faculties of Applied Science, Arts, Medicine, Science, Dentistry and Education, as well as UBC Library.