What we do

Capital planning and management oversees the financial planning, funding strategies, and financial management of the university’s capital program. This function supports long-term infrastructure and renewal planning, monitors capital project financial performance, and ensures sustainable stewardship of capital resources in alignment with institutional and campus priorities. 

Financial planning and analysis provides university-wide financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analytical support to enable informed and strategic decision-making. This function partners with academic and administrative units to assess financial performance, identify risks and opportunities, and support resource allocation aligned with institutional priorities. 

Financial reporting leads the preparation, analysis, and delivery of accurate, timely, and compliant financial and management reporting for internal and external stakeholders. This function ensures adherence to university policies, accounting standards, and regulatory requirements, and supports transparency and accountability across UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan. 

Integrated Service Centre (ISC) manages Workday as a core enterprise system at UBC, providing faculty, staff, and student employees with day-to-day support and access to its tools and resources. The ISC also leads ongoing improvements to Workday’s processes, functionality, and user experience in collaboration with campus partners to support the university’s operational and strategic needs. 

Payroll ensures accurate and timely payment for faculty, staff, and student employees through the Workday system, managing pay calculations, taxes, deductions, and retroactive adjustments. The team also provides account management, complex situations such as leave overpayments, ensures compliance with CRA regulations, and delivers essential year-end reporting. 

Procurement partners with faculty and staff across all UBC campuses to deliver strategic, sustainable solutions that ensure best-value, low-risk procurement and compliance, while supporting alignment with university policies and regulatory requirements. 

Transformation and strategy drives portfolio-wide transformation and strategic initiatives to strengthen financial maturity and align systems, processes, and performance with UBC’s strategic goals. The team leads projects that streamline operations, enhance financial efficiency, leverage technology, and support the university’s long-term sustainability.  

Treasury safeguards and optimizes UBC’s financial assets, through comprehensive cash management, liquidity planning, and active oversight of debt issuance and the re-lending of working capital to faculties and departments. The team leads short- and long-term cash forecasting and financial modelling to support institutional decision-making, financial sustainability, and long-range planning. Treasury also provides strategic leadership in tax planning, contract and lease management, administration of the Faculty Housing Assistance Program, oversight of internal liquor licensing, and stewardship of the university’s institutional financial memory. 

Asset Replacement & Improvements (ARI) delivers small renovation projects with in-house Construction Office trades to support learning and research needs. The ARI Technical Review Team provides expert input on capital project design and manages the handover of completed projects to operations teams. 

Building Operations operates and maintains all academic and administrative buildings, ensuring that spaces and systems perform properly to enable excellence in research and learning. This includes ensuring that UBC buildings are in compliance with applicable codes and regulations. 

Capital Planning & Development (CP&D) manages UBC’s facilities capital program including development of capital plans and project business cases for government funding, preparation of project approval requests to UBC Executive and Board of Governors, and governance of major building projects and the routine capital facilities renewal program. CP&D engages UBC Properties Trust to manage the design and construction of major new building projects. 

Custodial Services provides custodial care for academic buildings to ensure proper cleanliness, hygiene and campus image. This includes cleaning and sanitation services, restocking of washroom supplies, locking/unlocking of exterior doors, set up for final exams, and water intrusion response. 

Customer Services and Informatics ensures effective communications with customers and reliable systems, processes and asset records. This team serves as the connection between Facilities and the university community, most notably via the Facilities Managers and the Facilities Service Centre. 

Energy & Water Services (EWS) operates and maintains campus utility systems to ensure safety, reliability, sustainability and regulatory compliance. EWS aims to reduce UBC’s consumption of energy and water, and eliminate GHG emissions through innovative conservation projects.  

Facilities Planning works closely with academic, administrative and ancillary units to address their space needs, ensuring the best and highest use of campus space, identifying opportunities for intensification or reorganization, and translating user functional requirements into reality.

Municipal Services is responsible for UBC’s streets, fleet, stores, waste management, and public realm with a focus on providing clean, accessible, and enjoyable spaces for people to move, linger and connect to nature and the campus community.

Project Services manages renovations, renewals and modernizations of buildings and campus infrastructure ranging in size from $50,000 to $100 million. This includes a wide variety of capital projects such as classroom and lab renovations, building system replacements, accessibility upgrades, public realm improvements, utilities infrastructure, and whole building renewals.

Community Safety provides 24/7 safety and security services across the Vancouver campus. The team upholds a community focused model, enacting university policies and procedures, and supports medical emergencies, threat management, event and personal safety planning, access control, and safety and security systems. Working closely with the university community, emergency services and internal and external partners, the team helps UBC remain a safe and welcoming place to study, work, live, and visit.

Emergency Management & Continuity Planning works with academic, operational and neighbourhood groups across campus to plan and prepare for, respond to and recover from hazards and risks that could impact our university community. During emergencies, UBC’s emergency management team ensures broad institutional coordination in support of life safety, community resilience and the continuity of UBC’s mission. Emergency Management works closely with partners on the peninsula and across the region to ensure seamless coordination and mutual aid when emergencies occur.

Environmental Protection assists faculties and departments in fulfilling their environmental responsibilities and offers regulatory and technical guidance through hazardous waste management, environmental audits, consultation, and the implementation of the Environmental Management System in accordance with the Environmental Protection Compliance Policy SC4. Their efforts contribute to reducing environmental impacts, managing environmental risks, and preventing as well as responding to spills or releases. Additionally, the team prepares and submits environmental compliance reports to municipal, provincial, and federal authorities.

Occupational Health and Safety provides guidance and technical expertise under the Occupational and Research Health and Safety Policy SC1. Workplace hazards and risks are managed through comprehensive, integrated programs which establish policies, provides training, and supports compliance across all Faculties and operational units.  OHS is guided by a due diligence framework that includes hazard identification, risk assessment, incident reporting, and continuous improvement, with shared responsibility across leadership, supervisors, and workers. The university maintains robust safety programs spanning laboratory safety, fieldwork, ergonomics, and psychological health and safety, and fosters a proactive safety culture that goes beyond regulatory requirements. In addition to the dedicated occupational health and safety professionals within SRS, an extensive network of over 700 faculty, staff, and student workers, serve as safety advocates. These individuals participate in 31 Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committees and more than 100 Local Safety Teams at the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.  This work helps reduce risks, prevent injuries, and minimize occupational diseases across workplaces, teaching spaces, and research environments. 

Insurance and Loss Prevention (ILP) is responsible for overseeing, procuring, and administering the university’s property, liability, automobile and specialty programs insurance program. The team manages claims, reviews contracts, issues waivers, and leads loss control activities. Serving as a central resource across all operations of the institution, ILP provides departments with day-to-day risk management guidance, prepares documentation such as waivers and informed consent forms, issues certificates of insurance, and reviews contracts with a focus on indemnity and insurance considerations. The team also promotes loss prevention awareness and supports initiatives to reduce risk across the university.

Privacy and Information Security Management (PrISM) is jointly operated in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Information Office (CIO) and University Counsel. The program is focused on reducing the risk of a privacy or information security breach impacting the UBC community, and provides privacy impact assessments (PIAs), security threat and risk assessments, training, and compliance support programs to UBC faculties and departments.