Academic Space Policies Update Project

The Faculty of Medicine’s academic space is at a premium due to growing program demands, aging infrastructure, and limited funding. The existing space policies, last revised in 2020, must be updated to align with the 5-year policy cycle and address the shift to hybrid work and more diverse user needs.

Updated policies will provide clear, fair guidelines for the sustainable and efficient management of space. These changes will support the Faculty of Medicine’s mission and goals by ensuring optimal use of academic space across the province.

The ongoing efficient and effective management of space occupied by the Faculty of Medicine is critical and a shared responsibility. Space does not belong to an individual unit or group; it is an institutional asset that is subject to change and reallocation based on the Faculty of Medicine’s strategic priorities.

This project seeks input from the community to assess how current space policies are supporting users and to gather ideas for improving space allocation and management. The goal is to ensure the updated policies reflect the diverse needs of users and support the sustainable use of space across the province.

Teaching space is available to all education and research units. The policies that provide guidance for the use of teaching space are the room booking policies. The academic administrative and research policies that are being updated in this project do not include teaching spaces. The room booking policies for teaching spaces will be updated in 2026. 

Yes. Any updates to the current space policies will apply to how academic space occupied by the Faculty of Medicine is managed across B.C., including at UBC Okanagan, our partner universities (UNBC and UVic), and the provincial health authorities (VCH, PHSA, FHA, VIHA, Interior Health, Northern Health and Providence Health Care).

Yes, until the current Faculty of Medicine academic space policies have been updated and approved, they still apply.

The Faculty of Medicine is committed to listening to your feedback and reporting back on how it was used or why it was not used.

This project will focus on updating the 2020 academic space policies to better reflect the shift to hybrid work, address institutional needs and pressures, suggestions for improvements to the policies and guidelines, as well as other kinds of tools and resources to support the efficient and effective management and allocation of academic space.

Updates to the Academic Learning Spaces: Booking and Utilization Policy are out-of-scope for this project.

The intended outcomes are to:

• Update the administrative and research space policies and guidelines to reflect stakeholder input and provide better guidance around the efficient and effective utilization of academic administrative and research space assigned to the Faculty of Medicine.
• Deepen engagement with faculty and staff responsible for the management of space and determine how UBC FoM Space Planning and Facilities Management unit can assist with managing space going forward.
• Achieve increased alignment with the academic space policies and better utilization of space province-wide.

Decision-making around changes to the policies will:

• Be equitable, fair, open, and transparent.
• Comply with UBC University space policies and align, where possible, with UBC and Health Authority guidelines.
• Promote an understanding that space is a finite resource, subject to efficient, sustainable and responsible use.
• Be mindful of current and upcoming research and education challenges and trends.
• Foster clear roles and responsibilities over management, use and allocation of space.

The intended outcomes are to:

• Academic space assigned to the Faculty of Medicine is an institutional asset and its use needs to support the Faculty of Medicine’s strategic pillars and goals.
• Updates to the policies will not result in physical changes to existing space, nor the acquisition of more space.
• The updated policies will support efficient, sustainable and responsible use of space assigned to the Faculty of Medicine.
• Recognizing that Faculty of Medicine uses academic space that is owned and operated by UBC and our partners, the Faculty of Medicine space policies and guidelines should align with Partner University and Health Authority space policies and guidelines, as applicable.
• The updated policies will clearly establish roles and responsibilities for the management, use and allocation of academic space assigned to the Faculty of Medicine.
• The research space policy should reflect different types of research, research space, and research space needs.
• The updated policies will continue to apply to new and existing Faculty of Medicine academic space users.

The intended outcomes are to:

• Community members will know how and why they are involved in the policy consultation process.
• Those impacted or interested will be proactively contacted at the starting point.
• The needs and concerns of the Faculty of Medicine community will be understood.
• The process will be appropriately resourced to deliver on the plan and engagement objectives.
• Methods of involvement will be chosen that match the engagement objectives.
• Manner of engagement will reflect the diversity and needs of the Faculty of Medicine community.
• Two-way information will be supported for informed participation and planning.
• Outcomes of the process and how participant input was used will be shared.
• The process will be evaluated with participant feedback.
• The project will be integrated with ongoing communication, relationship building and research evaluation opportunities.

The policies will be approved in compliance with the Faculty of Medicine’s administrative governance structure, involving:  

• Facilities and Capital Planning Committee
• Department Heads & School Directors Committee
• Dean’s Executive Advisory Council
• Dean, Faculty of Medicine

Academic Administrative Space Allocation and Management Policy

Academic Research Space Allocation and Management Policy

Updating Faculty of Medicine Academic Space Policies Presentation