As part of the 2025/2026 TLEF funding round, the Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic has earmarked funding to support a third cohort for the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Fellows Program.
The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Fellows Program is a cohort-based professional development program designed to support faculty and staff to develop expertise in UDL through a series of facilitated workshops, online modules, and project-driven activities. These components are tailored to help UDL Fellows to effectively implement UDL principles in their daily practices, teaching approaches and course redesign efforts, ensuring greater accessibility for all.
The 2025 UDL Fellows Program will run across four months, between May and August 2025, and project teams participating in the Program will implement UDL in their courses during the 2025/26 academic year.
- Identify and address systemic barriers to equitable learning opportunities, to create and sustain equitable and inclusive campuses by enhancing the accessibility of physical and virtual spaces for students, staff, and faculty (supporting UBC Strategic Plan Strategy 4: Inclusive Excellence; and the UBC Inclusion Action Plan).
- Improve access and inclusion in on-campus, online and hybrid teaching and learning environments with a focus on reducing barriers for all learners.
- Cultivate a network of practitioners skilled in applying UDL approaches to teaching and learning contexts across various academic disciplines. These UDL advocates will also help to raise awareness of UDL among faculty and staff across the university community.
- Develop a range of strategies and resources that will expand support for accessibility within university practices and courses, promoting a more inclusive learning environment for all.
Faculty project teams
The Faculty UDL project team should consist of an instructor, who may be either a tenure-stream or contract faculty, responsible for teaching a course that forms the centerpiece of the project as well as a staff member from a Faculty support unit (e.g., Arts ISIT) or the instructor’s Department who will work alongside the instructor on the redesign of the course.
Central and faculty support
Departments will be eligible to receive $10,000 in funding to cover a three-credit course release for faculty who participate in the UDL Fellows Program. Faculties are asked to commit in-kind support of a staff member to participate fully in this professional development program as a core project team member, to work closely with faculty on the UDL redesign project that will be developed during the program.
During the program, UDL Fellows will also have access to support from UDL Program facilitators, other UDL Fellows, as well as opportunities to get feedback on their approaches from student consultants from the Centre for Accessibility.
Faculty of Arts nomination process
The Faculty of Arts can nominate one team for participation in the 2025/26 academic year and is requesting Arts instructors who would like to be considered to submit their nomination form by Friday, January 10, 2025. The Associate Dean Academic will make a nomination following review by an adjudication committee. Once the project for Arts has been identified, Arts ISIT will work with the lead instructor to identify the support staff that best complements the goals and needs of the project team.
The selected participants will then work with the Associate Dean Academic and Arts ISIT staff to revise the nomination form to address the Dean’s Office feedback and confirm team member roles before submitting the final nomination forms to the TLEF administration.
Nomination form
Please complete the nomination form using the Word document template provided and then submit the form below. Responses should be limited to 300-500 words per section.
To be considered, please submit the nomination form below no later than Friday, January 10, 2025.
Additional information
If you have questions about the nomination process or the UDL Fellows Program, please contact Jason Myers (jason.myers@ubc.ca) and/or Stefania Burk (stefania.burk@ubc.ca).
