The UBC Budget represents the financial plan for the university—it serves as a roadmap for allocating the university’s revenues against anticipated expenses for the coming year.
UBC’s budget for 2024/25 was approved by UBC’s Board of Governors on March 27, 2024, and covers the fiscal year from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.
Read the full 2024/25 Budget report
The budget process is a collaboration between the UBCV Provost and UBCO Deputy Vice-Chancellor, who lead the alignment of the budget to UBC’s academic strategy, with central finance (VP Finance & Operations) and the distributed faculty and administrative unit finance teams.
The primary aim of the annual budget process is to advance the long-term health and vitality of UBC’s academic mission and to support the university’s strategic aspirations (as identified in Shaping UBC’s Next Century, Strategic Plan 2018 – 2028). The budget is guided by the Government of BC’s Mandate for UBC and informed by relevant economic and political factors, risk assessments, and assumptions.
The budget process involves many months of collaborative planning across UBC’s faculties, administrative units, and stakeholders on both campuses, culminating in the presentation of the budget proposal to the Board of Governors for approval. The university’s budget model and planning processes are described in more detail each year in the annual budget report.
Creating the 2024/25 Budget
The budget model used at UBC is decentralized, meaning that faculties and administrative units are responsible for managing budgets within their respective portfolios. The university’s faculty and administrative unit finance teams are constantly reviewing their budgets with the goal of advancing UBC’s Strategic Plan.
In the fall, strategic planning meetings with the university’s faculties and units kick off the process with a “year-in-review” and forward-looking discussion. The process ends with the final UBC Executive recommendation of the budget proposal for approval by the Board of Governors.
The process ensures that financial planning across the university is aligned with UBC’s strategic priorities and encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing across all academic and administrative groups. While budgets for the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses are determined separately, they are combined in the annual Budget Report before being presented to the Board of Governors for consideration.
