The information below is from the 2019 request for proposals. Please see the opportunity website for updated information and other potential grant opportunities.
The University of California is undertaking a multi-year project to increase access to the university. UC President Janet Napolitano requested that campuses provide “information on how additional funding could … achieve the goals of growing 200,000 more degrees by 2030, ensuring the California dream is for everyone by increasing six-year freshman and four-year transfer graduation rates to 90 percent and eliminating graduation gaps, and investing in the next generation of faculty and research.”
Although UCLA meets the stated 90 percent goal for six-year freshman and four-year transfer graduation rates, there is urgency on two fronts:
- To close disparities in time-to-degree between different demographic groups, e.g., Pell Grant recipients or under-represented groups.
- To increase access to UCLA by significantly increasing four-year freshman and two-year transfer graduation rates. Increasing the pace of degree completion will allow more Californians access to UCLA while keeping class sizes stable.
This grant program is one of a variety of proposed strategies to meet the above stated goals. This inaugural call for proposals is intended to provide funding to departments or divisions/schools to identify and alleviate barriers to timely degree completion and to close disparities for their undergraduate majors.
The Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT, formerly the Office of Instructional Development) is managing the grant process. The proposal development process will be consultative and data will be provided to units concerning time-to-degree for the unit’s majors, disparities in time-to-degree, and courses that may be barriers to timely completion. Furthermore, during the execution of awarded grants, CAT can provide ongoing consultation, guidance, and services, as described further below.
Two types of grants will be awarded:
- Planning Grants to (1) identify the causes of time-to-degree greater than four years (or greater than two years for transfers) or disparities in time-to-degree, and (2) once causes are known, explore feasible solutions.
- Get It Done Quick (GIDQ) Grants to alleviate known barriers that require only modest funding and a short timeline.
Barriers to be identified or alleviated could include bottleneck courses with insufficient capacity to meet demand, curricular complexity leading to students being delayed in obtaining courses in a sequence, transfer students arriving on campus without required prerequisites for junior-level courses, the existence of required courses with high failure rates or significant disparities in performance between different demographic groups, etc.
Award Amount and Details
- For both types of grants, funds can be used for such things as course releases, graduate student support, equipment to be used in courses, meeting facilitation, focus group facilitation, survey development, etc. This is not an exhaustive list; all funding requests will be considered in light of their necessity for conducting the proposed work. In addition, in-kind support can be requested from CAT (and, via CAT, from other campus units) for assistance with pedagogy, literature review, educational technology, video production, and assessment of the success of the intervention.
- In this inaugural year, the grant funding levels will be on the order of $5,000-$20,000; planning grants are expected to have lower costs than GIDQ grants. In future years, it is anticipated that funding for larger grants will be available to follow up on the planning grants and support interventions that are costlier to implement.
Deadlines and Date Information
The due date listed above is the most recent due date our office is aware of. Please see the opportunity home page for information about potential upcoming deadlines or other opportunities.
- Units that may be interested in submitting a proposal should request initial data from CAT by sending an email to consult@teaching.ucla.edu by April 26, 2019.
- It is anticipated that prior to submitting a proposal there will be significant discussion between the proposing unit, CAT, and potentially other campus units, with the goal of developing a proposal that can lead to substantial improvements. The initial contact for these consultations is CAT; proposers should contact consult@teaching.ucla.edu to set up a consultation by early May to allow sufficient time to develop a strong proposal.
Eligibility Information
Proposals should be submitted by a team of faculty on behalf of a department, division, school, or other unit that is either responsible for an undergraduate degree program or for providing courses taken by a large number of undergraduate students.
