Updates, news and stories

Discover the lonely fate of a robot on Mars

Covered in the red dust that sealed its fate, NASA's InSight lander is slowly shutting down, more than 250 million kilometres from home. With its solar panels now obscured by the planet’s debris, the four-year-old robot is running out of power. One by one, its instruments are being taken offline: its robotic arm moving into ‘retirement pose’, and its seismometer likely to be turned off sometime in June.

Tell us how you’re innovating teaching at UBC

What inspires you to think and act differently as an educator? Do you offer an innovative teaching experience or environment? Have you introduced new ways of overcoming barriers in your classes?

2022 Aspire-2040 Learning Transformations Fund Awards

A message from Rehan Sadiq, Provost and Vice-President, Academic pro tem, UBC Okanagan Dear colleagues, The Aspire-2040 Learning Transformations (ALT-2040) Fund supports program development, curriculum transformations, student experience enhancement and educational resource development that accelerates the curricular vision in UBC’s strategic planning documents Outlook 2040 and UBC’s Strategic Plan, Shaping UBC’s Next Century.

See photos from the Staff & Faculty Sports Day

Staff & Faculty Sports Day took place in-person in Vancouver and the Okanagan earlier this month.  More than 360 people took part in the festivities at UBC Vancouver, with over 200 participants at UBC Okanagan. The afternoon was filled with lots of energy, bright colours and cheer. See the photos!

Apply to the Students as Partners fund by June 15

The Students as Partners fund provides grants to encourage student-faculty partnerships in undergraduate course redesign at UBC Vancouver.   Faculty and student partners may receive up to $7,100 per project, as well as dedicated support from an assigned Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology staff member, and access to a learning community. During 2022-2024, up to 40 projects will be funded, with the intention to distribute funds across a diversity of disciplines and academic units. 

Meet the turtle that helped reduce plastic office waste

As part of a UBC Psychology experiment, pictures of a turtle and other marine animals were placed above recycling bins to see if they could influence people to reduce their plastic waste in offices. The research indicates that visualizing marine consequences helped reduce plastic waste by 17%.

Santa Ono and UBC professor Henry Yu discuss Asian Heritage Month and what it means to them

Asian Heritage Month is an opportunity for all Canadians to learn more about the many achievements and contributions of Canadians of Asian descent.

New research suggests ways to get men to open up

Reconnecting on campus: Graduation and Principal’s Town Hall

A message from Lesley Cormack, Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UBC Okanagan Dear colleagues, It’s been a tough two years—but the normal things in life are starting to resume. And opportunities to connect on campus are resuming, too. I’m pleased to highlight the return of two meaningful opportunities to connect with our community on campus in the coming weeks:

Equity Enhancement Fund — call for proposals

This message was sent to executive, deans and other senior academic leaders, academic heads, directors and managers, and senior professional leaders in Vancouver and the Okanagan.

Message from the Provost, UBC Okanagan

A message from Rehan Sadiq, Provost and Vice-President, Academic pro tem, UBC Okanagan Dear colleagues, As we conclude a busy winter term at UBC Okanagan, I am pleased to share a new iteration of the Provost Office newsletter, Academic Update. We will be issuing this newsletter quarterly on the Provost’s website to keep you apprised of the many academic initiatives happening on our campus.