UCLA's Strategic Plan: A Blueprint for the Future

UCLA's strategic plan serves as a guiding framework and an overview of the institutional investments that will provide high-level direction for the university. Developed with extensive input from faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners, the plan focuses on key goals and guiding principles that will shape the institution's trajectory. Importantly, the plan considers these goals through the lens of inclusive excellence, acknowledging that past achievements have not always been shared equally and striving for a more inclusive future.

Five Goals

UCLA launched its five-year strategic plan with five goals:

Deepening our engagement with Los Angeles.
Expanding UCLA’s reach as a global university.
Enhancing research and creative activities.
Elevating how we teach.
Becoming a more effective institution.

Deepening Engagement with Los Angeles

UCLA is doubling down on its relationship with Los Angeles, recognizing its competitive advantage. The city's diversity and international diasporas attract remarkable faculty, and almost every global issue has an analog in Los Angeles. By expanding its presence in the city, UCLA enables its students and scholars to engage with issues across the entire globe. This "glocal" connection, fusing the global and the local, gives UCLA a unique advantage. As a public research university, UCLA has a significant mission to serve the public, deepening its engagement beyond Westwood to deliver on the opportunity and promise it offers. UCLA is making substantial progress on deepening connections to Los Angeles with the acquisition of sites in downtown L.A., the South Bay and the Westside.

The new UCLA downtown building is envisioned as a brick-and-mortar incubator where people can come together and engage across a range of different topic areas. It is thought of as UCLA’s “living room,” where people can come in off the street, sit down, have coffee and talk with folks about the world’s great problems or opportunities. A programming board solicits proposals for uses of the space. For example, a research group could work on sustainability issues. The building could be treated like a flex workspace, where projects come in for a limited period of time. Because the building is four blocks from City Hall and by the court system, UCLA Law and the Luskin School of Public Affairs could have space in the building, working with government officials and community-based organizations. The building will be used for events to recruit the next class of students from areas of Los Angeles that are far from Westwood, giving UCLA a more proximate connection with communities that have traditionally been underserved.

Expanding Reach as a Global University

UCLA's strategic plan aims to expand its reach as a global university. This goal may be measured by the volume of international exchange between students and faculty.

Enhancing Research and Creative Activities

The strategic plan aims to enhance research and creative activities. Progress in this area may be measured by funding dollars, hopefully making it easier for researchers to apply for grants and secure them.

Elevating Teaching

The strategic plan acknowledges that quality instruction can sometimes get lost at a major research university. This goal aims to ensure that UCLA provides a world-class education to its students, producing future leaders. This requires keeping up with the latest pedagogical approaches and technology in the classroom. Thankfully, one of the things that attracts faculty here is our amazing student body.

The following initiatives utilize technology and data as support structures to teaching and learning through adoption of inclusive teaching modalities, purposeful integration of technology in course design principles, and modernizing learning spaces throughout the campus. The transformation of the teaching and learning environment is going to necessitate more than just an assessment of the technology requirements.

The strategic plan has different strategies for making the material in a class more accessible, ensuring there is equity across different groups. The goal is for every student, regardless of their background and experiences, to have an equal opportunity to learn and to become leaders.

Becoming a More Effective Institution

Becoming a more effective institution means reducing red tape, making it such that staff feel like they are not as burdened with going through the routine of their day-to-day work.

Read also: Navigating Tech Breadth at UCLA

Inclusive Excellence

Inclusive excellence is a key concept that underlies the entire strategic plan. It recognizes that diversity and excellence are not mutually exclusive but rather two sides of the same coin. Research shows that diversifying the people involved multiplies the perspectives, wisdom, knowledge, and questions brought to a problem, ultimately leading to a better product. To be truly excellent, UCLA must be inclusive and create structures, pathways, and processes to ensure inclusivity in everything it does.

UCLA Connects focuses on building connections - within and beyond our campus. This initiative aims to create a more integrated and collaborative innovation ecosystem across Southern California and beyond.

UCLA for Life is a strategic initiative that reimagines the university’s educational mission as a lifelong partnership with learners. It seeks to elevate and expand UCLA’s educational offerings to meet the complex, rapidly evolving demands of the 21st-century learner, whether traditional students, mid-career professionals, or returning alumni.

Key Initiatives and Priorities

Strengthening the Foundation of IT

Strengthening the foundation of IT at UCLA will focus on campus infrastructure, information security, and application modernization. These initiatives will streamline IT systems and structures to simplify our digital landscape, enhance our core technical capabilities, and safeguard our IT environment. The Digital Campus Roadmap will allow UCLA to modernize its core technology services through key operational improvements and strategic enhancements (i.e., unification of our campus network, improvements in our procurement process enabled by Jaggaer, etc.).

Advancing the Mission

Advancing the mission will focus on supporting flexible, holistic, and user-friendly experiences and designing an ecosystem of teaching and learning technologies in partnership with campus stakeholders (i.e., enhancements to classroom technology, modernization of data services to assist in data quality and availability, etc.).

Read also: Understanding UCLA Counselors

Administration's Vision

In support of the UCLA Strategic Plan, Administration’s vision is to create strategic partnerships to sustain an operational infrastructure that enables UCLA’s excellence with unparalleled service, innovation and effectiveness. As a collective unit, the departments within Administration, understands the changing landscape in higher education requires a vision that embraces technology as a facilitator for streamlining processes, enhancing connectivity, and fostering digital literacy across all levels. Due to the trending shift in demographics, it is equally important to recognize that this landscape is rich in diversity and therefore operational strategies must intentionally integrate actions that ensure equity and inclusivity in all endeavors. As an operational entity that supports the various facets of the University, Administration is responsible for many important coinciding objectives. A major path towards operational efficiency is optimizing the use of technology in our core services. Committing to the overall wellness of the organization and its talent is a function of sustaining a positive work environment. Technology and space management are vital elements to enhancing the learning, teaching and work performance of our students, faculty and staff.

UCLA Extension

UCLA Extension is reimagining the institution’s engagement and relationship with prospective, current and continuing students by utilizing data to inform decisions that affect their success. There are major shifts occurring in higher education that are influenced by rapid technological advancement, changing student demographics, and dynamic global challenges. UCLA is poised to not just adapt but thrive amidst these changes.

Strategic Priorities for UCLA Extension

Academic Excellence, Innovation and Scholarship: Each of our academic units rigorously maintains course content that is challenging, accurate and evidence based, ensuring that it remains relevant in an ever-changing marketplace.Global Engagement: Our International Programs unit will continue to provide wraparound support services for these students, focusing on holistic learning experiences that prepare them to live and lead in a global society.Inclusive Excellence: By recognizing inclusive excellence as a strategic priority for the whole of our institution, we commit to focusing time and resources on creating a safe, respectful and thriving environment for learning and working that welcomes all.External Affairs: UCLA Extension's first ever External Affairs unit connects the resources and reputation of UCLA with our local and global constituencies.Institutional Effectiveness: UCLA Extension must continuously be prepared to meet the dynamic needs of its community. By creating and implementing robust and data-driven processes across the institution, we will identify areas in which we excel and opportunities to become more efficient and effective.Student Success: UCLA Extension is reimagining the institution’s engagement and relationship with prospective, current and continuing students by utilizing data to inform decisions that affect their success.

Department of Medicine

The Department of Medicine's strategic plan focuses on research, education, patient care, and community engagement and investment. The plan is the product of thoughtful engagement based on valuable input by a wide cross section of our community, including department faculty, staff, trainees, community partners, health system and campus leadership.

Metrics for Success

One of the things discussed at the very beginning of the strategic planning process is what types of metrics to identify for each goal to see if the university is on track and to see if it is actually making progress over time.

Deepening engagement with Los Angeles may be a measure of how many different community partnerships we launch. Expanding reach as a global university may look at the volume of international exchange between students and faculty. We may look at our funding dollars, hopefully making it easier for researchers to apply for grants and secure them.

Each of the goals has different metrics, but I think for me, the higher-level measure or indicator of success is just stopping a random person on campus and asking them, “Where is UCLA going?” and have them be able to articulate the vision that the plan endeavors to establish.

Specific Initiatives and Achievements

Digital Campus Roadmap: Modernizing core technology services through operational improvements and strategic enhancements.
Explorance Blue: Piloted a course evaluation tool, Explorance Blue, in three courses.
Space Management: Expanding the management of physical space data across campus locations, including off-campus and residential properties.
AI for Safety: Completed feasibility study for AI for Safety.
Continuous Process Improvements: Launched three continuous process improvements within Facilities Management.
HR System Implementations: Completed three HR system implementations (Bruin CHR Service Center Phase 1, JDXpert, and iCIMS).
University Vehicle Management: Enhanced tool for evaluating and reporting on University vehicle life cycle costs.
Transit Pass Program: Reached highest participation rate in overall transit pass program at UCLA.
Campus Safety: Submitted UCLA’s Security Investment Plan in compliance with UCOP systemwide mandate.
Campus Decarbonization Study: Completed the Campus Decarbonization Study in collaboration with Facilities Management.
Co-Gen Rain Water Capture Project: Implement the regulatory Co-gen Rain Water Capture Project intended to meet or exceed all stormwater discharge requirements.
Smart Buildings & Labs Project: Completed Phase 1 of the Smart Buildings & Labs project work in Terasaki Life Sciences Building.
Gender Inclusive Restrooms: Expanded the number of multi-stall Gender Inclusive Restrooms on campus.
Deferred Maintenance Program: Maximize efficiencies and utilization of state granted funds to address Deferred Maintenance Program.
Leadership Development: Completed needs assessment for HR Partner Leadership Academy program curriculum.
Employee Relations: Managed a total of 117 ELR cases at year-end.
Admin IT Consolidation: Rationalize services, consolidate resources, and unify IT staff by bringing together assets-housed throughout a variety of administrative units reporting to VC of Administration-and their administration under Information Technology Services (ITS).
EDI Initiatives: Create a hiring toolkit, improve outreach strategies and involve EDI advisors in the Housing & Hospitality recruitment and interview processes to ensure diverse candidates in the recruitment of senior roles.

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