Strategic Plan Year 4/Q2 Accomplishments

With a new fiscal year well underway, we’re writing to provide a recap of our FY23 Strategic Plan accomplishments to date.

The BCIT Strategic Plan articulates three commitments that represent our core areas of activity and accountability to our students, faculty, staff, and partners. We are intent on being a people-focused organization that delivers future-proof applied education, amplifying our impact through globally relevant connections. These commitments create the structure of our Strategic Plan through nine initiatives.

We continued to make significant progress towards each of our commitments—through 21 deliverables—while acknowledging our fiscal and operational constraints. Progress on each of the deliverables is reported to faculty and staff via the bi-weekly Strategic Plan implementation update emails. These updates can be viewed within the actions tab of the Strategic Plan website and the Loop.

Highlights
While our FY23 Q2 report provides more detail on our progress, we’d like to celebrate a few FY23 highlights with you.

Commitment 1: People-focused organization

Learner support and services

• Expanded student housing priority access for applicants who have been in care and/or face barriers, which was particularly important in a year with substantial waitlists.

Faculty and staff development 

• Drafted metrics and shared assessment of progress against the People Vision initiatives.

Process and system redesign

• Implemented a Financial dashboard with metrics to track the financial health of BCIT and monthly reporting to better track the Institute’s progress against the recovery strategy and budget.
• Developed multi-year forecasting for operating, capital, and cash flow to ensure understanding of the long-term impacts of decisions on financial sustainability.
• Developed and initiated the Chart of Accounts (FOAPAL) Project which will redefine and standardize the chart of accounts, enabling better tracking of costs and providing analytics to support decision making. This will ultimately enable improvements to the budget model and functionality.

Commitment 2: Future-proof applied education

Renewal in flexible studies 

• Continued alignment of recommendations to enhance the quality of Flexible Learning (formerly Part-time Studies) such as identification of pre-requisite requirements for fall courses.

Interdisciplinary and integrative learning

• Expanded the work-integrated learning initiatives across programs in Aerospace, Heavy Duty Mechanic, and Digital Arts.
• Designed and announced notice of intent for an Associate Certificate in Polytechnic Teaching, which will support BCIT faculty in innovative pedagogical approaches and instructional strategies to equip themselves and students for the rapidly changing labour market.

Augmented and sustainable environments

• Opened the Tech Collider space at the Downtown Campus, which offers a unique and exciting space for students to work on real-world technology projects with industry partners and access to enhanced AV technologies, makerspace, and entrepreneurship services.
• Completed move-in of academic health programs to the new Health Science Centre; the state-of-the-art learning and collaboration spaces are being utilized not only by students in health programs, but also by other programs across campus.
• Supported multiple municipalities across British Columbia in reducing their GHG emissions and ecological footprints, including developing relevant action plans.

Commitment 3: Globally relevant connections

Open and representative community

• Developed a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) environmental assessment, which will inform the development of BCIT’s upcoming D&I plan.
• Continued implementation of the Strategic Enrolment Management (SEM) Plan including the completion of the first pilot, migrating eight Finance and Accounting Flexible Learning (formerly PTS) programs to an admission model that aligns part-time programs to their full-time equivalents and prepares students for success.

As a community, we’re all accountable for advancing the Strategic Plan and the progress to date is a reflection of our collective efforts. Thank you for your continued support and look to the bi-weekly Strategic Plan implementation updates to follow our progress.

Thank you,