Dear Campus Community,
I hope you have had a smooth start to the new academic year. This quarter’s update focuses on three very different topics:
· UCR’s international ranking
· Digital accessibility
· Micro-credentials
International Rankings
While there are many valid reasons to dismiss rankings as a meaningful measure of university quality, the reality remains that prospective students and their families, especially those from outside the United States, rely on rankings to make their decisions about where to enroll for both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. While UCR has risen in the American rankings over the past decade, our international ranking remains low because we have not received sufficient peer recognition for the voluminous and impactful research and creative output of our faculty. To remediate this oversight, we have created a portal through which every member of the UCR community can nominate academics and employers to be surveyed for their perception of UCR. If each one of us could encourage one colleague outside UCR to recognize UCR in the reputation surveys, our ranking could improve dramatically, greatly increasing the likelihood for attracting highly qualified nonresident students.
More information about the academic and employer reputation surveys, including step-by-step instructions, can be found here. Note that your UCR NetID cannot be used to access the portal; instead, a separate registration is needed. If you have additional questions, please contact Vice Provost of International Affairs Marko Princevac at markop@ucr.edu. Thank you in advance for your willingness to help raise UCR’s reputation to match its excellence!
Digital Accessibility
I am pleased to report significant progress toward meeting the April 26, 2027, deadline for compliance with federal guidelines and UC policy to ensure our digital content is accessible to all UCR community members. One year ago, we could monitor just 6% of UCR websites, which collectively scored 84/100 for accessibility. Now, we can monitor 65% of all websites, and the average accessibility score has improved to 94/100. XCITE also helped UCR instructors remediate more than 9,000 files across 166 courses, leading to improvements in average accessibility scores for Canvas courses as well. This is great progress but there is more work to be done. Unit leaders will be collaborating with their Digital Accessibility Liaisons to ensure continued progress before April. My thanks to everyone for their efforts! And don't forget to utilize these helpful digital accessibility resources for your ongoing and future work.
Micro-credentials
Over the past ten years, many university campuses and large employers have developed micro-credential programs to help make specific career-relevant skills more accessible to learners and visible to employers. A micro-credential is a short, focused learning experience that develops a specific skill or competency valued by employers. Micro-credentials typically are validated by assessing the skill or competency and awarding a digital badge when a learner has demonstrated mastery.
At UCR, the Graduate Division, the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE), Professional and Global Education, and the Library have all begun developing and implementing micro-credentials. We have also been working closely with campus leaders to develop a process for interested units to offer micro-credentials. Those who are interested in initiating a new micro-credential program can visit the UCR micro-credential site to learn more and begin the process.
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Thank you for your attention in these three areas. Your contributions will help to ensure UCR’s international visibility, compliance with the federal mandate on digital accessibility, and responsiveness to the post-graduation employment needs of our students.