On December 11, Senate met for the last time of the 2024 year to approve a new Category 1 research centre, discuss budgetary concerns and hear about a 50 per cent reduction in Work Learn funding for UBC Library.
Here’s what you might’ve missed.
New Category 1 research centre
On UBC’s Senate Research and Scholarship Committee recommendation, Senate approved the establishment of the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging (ELCHA) as a Category 1 research centre. The ELCHA primarily focuses on research which targets healthy aging, geroscience and the social determinants which impact aging.
ELCHA Chair Dr. Michael Kobor said the ELCHA’s primary motivation for seeking Category 1 status is to develop academic credit courses which target aging. According to Kobor, only a few courses on aging currently exist at UBC, none of which are research-based graduate programs. Kobor said the centre hopes to develop a Masters of Science or PhD program for UBC.
“At the core of our mission is … [the] recognition that the biggest risk factor for all age-related diseases is actually age. And so understanding the biology of aging is fundamental to broadly extend health span and target diseases,” Kobor said.
Kobor also detailed the support the centre has already gathered, outlined its governance structure and identified its current strategic priorities. These priorities lie in training, education and the promotion of community engagement.
“Our goal is to basically extend healthy aging, to have everybody live healthier, longer lives.”
Record-breaking research funding amidst $45 million budget gap
UBC President Benoit-Antoine Bacon reported UBC amassed $893 million in funding for the 2024 year, a university record. Bacon also said while funding isn’t the only way to measure the productivity or impact of research, it’s “a good proxy.”
“Research drives reputation, so it's excellent news for everyone at UBC.”
Bacon also highlighted the 30+ recipients of UBC’s Inaugural Wall Legacy Awards, who received in total around $4 million towards their research.
UBC’s 2024 year, however, also saw 10 to 20 per cent less applicants alongside its record-breaking funding, a problem when international student tuition accounts for around 35 per cent of UBC’s budget.
Bacon cited UBC’s success in retaining international student applications in comparison to other Canadian universities.
“The international student regulations are hitting different universities to different degrees, and by and large, the strength of your brand, your location in a large and attractive city, are the two best protective factors. And we have both of them,” Bacon said.
Provost and Vice President Academic Gage Averill said UBC faces a delta gap of about $45 million a year, but despite this gap, UBC has balanced its budget this year and is close to balancing it for next year. Averill also said UBC has been collaborating with the province to produce a process to grant the university the number of provincial letters of attestation needed to get international students their visas.
Averill also noted UBC’s Faculties of Arts and of Applied Science have had "much more severe budgetary impact[s] this year.”
UBC Library 2023/24 report shows 50 per cent reduction in Work Learn funding
UBC University Librarian Dr. Susan Parker presented UBC Library’s 2023/24 annual report. Parker highlighted the library’s finalization of its three year Equity and Inclusion Action Plan, its development of an Indigenous reference training workshop and the library’s knowledge synthesis (among other) services.
Parker also said the library lost 15 per cent of its buying power due to purchasing materials invoiced unfavourably in US dollars.
“With this loss in buying power, a phenomenon that we expect will only continue, it's critical that we use a number of strategies to reduce our costs and maximize our budget,” said Parker.
Parker also said UBC Library has faced a 50 per cent decrease in Work Learn funding which will impact library student staffing.
“We had expected some reduction in available positions. We lowered our request by $40,000,” Parker said, “but the drop was still far more than we expected.”
“We are going to have to reduce our student workforce.”
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