Creating the Future: UCLA Strategic Plan 2023-28

By any measure, UCLA is a remarkable engine of positive change in California and across the globe. Our university provides an excellent education to a widely diverse student body. We produce transformative research for the public good. And we contribute greatly to the welfare of our region, state and the world.

Bruins are driven by the immense impact we have on the communities we serve. The question at the heart of UCLA’s 2023-28 strategic plan is how we deepen our impact at a moment of transformation within our broader society, within Los Angeles and within our university.

In short: how can we create the future?

Our Vision

UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt shares more about the plan and the cross-cutting theme of inclusive excellence:

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Our Goals

Our strategic plan’s goals and priorities were developed through extensive consultation with a broad range of stakeholders, including faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members.

With this plan, we are endeavoring to create the future of UCLA — one in which we surmount the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities that we face as an institution. In maximizing UCLA’s contributions to the world, we will also help create a better future for our global society. With greater impact as our goal, and inclusive excellence as our means of achieving it, we will do this with equity and justice at the forefront.

Hear from goal group leader Shalom Staub, Director, UCLA Center for Community Engagement:

The City of Los Angeles and UCLA have a symbiotic relationship. Los Angeles is a wonderfully diverse and dynamic city, and UCLA contributes to that dynamism by partnering with the city’s communities, supporting its economies, enriching its arts scene and much more. Our ties to this global city are what make our university unique as a public research university. We can better weave UCLA into the fabric of Los Angeles if we work alongside communities to address local challenges like health disparities, sustainability and economic inequality. This will help us more fully meet our public mandate — and will provide learning, research and community engagement opportunities for Bruins. It is a mutually beneficial endeavor, and one that will drive positive change and create a better future for all Angelenos.

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Hear from goal group leader Cindy Fan, Vice Provost for International Studies and Global Engagement, International Institute:

Expanding our reach as a global university is imperative as we aim to deepen our impact as a world-leading university. We are a state institution, but because many of the world’s most challenging issues cross national borders, we must have a global orientation. In fact, it is also a “glocal” orientation, one that connects the global with the local. It is critical that we help our students develop intercultural fluency, embrace a global outlook, and have opportunities to study abroad. We must strengthen UCLA’s extensive international alumni network, invite our scholars to tackle pressing global issues, and work more closely with international researchers. In an interconnected and dynamic world, UCLA’s expanded reach will position us to contribute even more to the public good – here in Los Angeles and around the world.

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Hear from goal group leader Roger Wakimoto, Vice Chancellor for Research & Creative Activities:

As a top-tier research institution, UCLA is already at the leading edge of research and creative activities. We are the birthplace of the internet, a leading hub for the study of brain health, and a go-to source for climate change scholarship. Our faculty have won Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals, Grammys, Pulitzers and more. Yet with smart changes to our research infrastructure and a new focus on engaged scholarship, we can do better work, do it more easily, and more effectively serve the common good. To become the world’s most impactful university, we must not only safeguard, but greatly enhance the research and creative activities coming out of UCLA.

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Hear from goal group co-leader Adriana Galván, Dean of Undergraduate Education:

UCLA has always been a standout among large research universities for the emphasis that we place on excellent teaching. But with new technology and instructional approaches at our fingertips, and as we deepen our understanding of how students learn, we need to make strategic changes to our teaching and learning enterprise. Providing students with the world-class education that they deserve, while supporting instructors and enabling them to incorporate new forms of pedagogy, will put UCLA at the forefront of a 21st century education. More effective onboarding, instructor training, and education in inclusive teaching practices will also ensure that UCLA is serving all of the learners in our diverse campus community.

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Hear from goal group leader Michael J. Beck, Vice Chancellor for Administration:

Ambitious goals that set UCLA on a path to achieve inclusive excellence can only be achieved if our operations are efficient, well organized, and work for everyone. By focusing part of the strategic plan on institutional effectiveness, we are putting emphasis on improvements to our enterprise systems, organizational processes, incentive structures and available campus assets. Our work aims to free up university resources, modernize UCLA’s technology infrastructure, correct inefficient practices, and help employees more easily tap into university data to aid decision making. All of these things will help free up human, financial, and physical resources so UCLA can better meet its full potential.

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