Academic Success

At UC Santa Cruz, academic success brings together twin priorities of student and faculty success, which are understood and supported as interrelated and interdependent.

Faculty gave lecture in classroom

Student Success

A targeted approach to student success focuses and leverages the expertise of our faculty.  In partnership with the Teaching and Learning Center, faculty are redesigning departmental curricula and major undergraduate pathway courses to enhance research-based and learner-centered practices that close equity gaps and promote academic success for all students. Faculty are refining and improving mentoring practices to enhance graduate student success, while ensuring experiential learning opportunities for students at all levels of the curriculum.

The work with faculty, departments, programs, and academic divisions will help us achieve the goals of the five-year compact between Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration and the University of California, as well as Chancellor Larive’s campus goals and priorities. The campus has committed to increasing retention and graduation rates,  reducing time to degree for frosh admits and transfers, and eliminating equity gaps for students from underrepresented groups, as well as for first generation and low-income students.

Early Career Faculty Success

Faculty at UC Santa Cruz simultaneously pursue scholarly research and creative works that advance knowledge and inquiry and develop and maintain service courses, academic programs and curricula that support student achievement and success.  Ensuring that new cohorts of faculty are supported to develop the skills and expertise necessary to balance these twin goals is one of the pillars of academic success. The welfare, development, and retention of early-career faculty are supported by a range of initiatives including new faculty welcome day, a two-day Teaching Academy, ongoing faculty development opportunities and workshops in collaboration with the Academic Senate and the Office of Research throughout the path to tenure, and a Writing Fellows Program that helps faculty to develop and disseminate scholarly publications that increase their research impact.

New faculty at UCSC group photo
Leadership & Equity UCSC 2023

Department Chair Leadership Development

The leadership provided by our department chairs is critical to achieving our academic success goals. Leadership & Equity (LnE) is a summer leadership retreat for department chairs that offers support, resources, skill-building, and community in areas such as communication and conflict resolution, equity in personnel review and hiring, facilitation and peer leadership skills, and building a healthy culture both within and beyond the department.