Planning Tools

Discontinuing Planning Tools in 2022

Access your archived reports via the Apex application.

May 4, 2022

Dear colleagues,

Thank you for submitting your spring Planning Tools reports. Your responses will inform UVic’s annual Institutional Accountability Plan and Report to the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training this summer, as well as help us assess and report out on the implementation of various institutional plans and priorities. Responses to the core questions have also informed Executive Members’ goals and priorities for the coming year, including with respect to our equity, diversity and inclusion goals.

While Planning Tools has served an important function, we have reviewed the refreshed Planning Tools system and begun exploring new and more efficient ways of obtaining and disseminating Planning Tools data. With the support of the Integrated Planning Committee, we have decided to discontinue Planning Tools reporting going forward. In making this decision, we have also taken into account significant feedback received from leaders, users and administrators since the system was introduced in 2015/16 (as Enhanced Planning Tools) and refreshed in 2020/21 (as Planning Tools). Among other concerns, we heard that the system was labour intensive to update and cumbersome to use.

Units will not be expected to submit fall term reports or other reports going forward. Instead, and in the short term, accountability to government and reporting on institutional plans will be met through existing data collection tools, external academic program reviews, or simplified methods such as email. Much of the information presented in Planning Tools remains available in otherreporting solutions at UVic (e.g., the FAST system and the SAS Enrolment Reporting Portal), and we will be archiving Planning Tools reports over the summer.

The introduction of a new UVic strategic framework and other upcoming institutional plans provide a timely opportunity to reassess our data needs. At the request of President Hall, we initiated an institutional data project earlier this year, co-led by Tony Eder and Wency Lum, aiming to further democratize leaders’ and community’s access to university information through user-friendly tools. The field of data analytics has grown significantly in recent years, and we will explore better utilization of current tools as well as new and customizable tools available in the post-secondary marketplace as part of this project.

We will provide more information on the institutional data project in the coming months and remain committed to data-informed decision making, aligning institutional priorities with allocations, and transparency in our budgeting process. In the meantime, if you have any data needs, please contact Institutional Planning and Analysis.

Sincerely,

Susan Lewis, Acting Vice-President Academic and Provost
Kristi Simpson, Acting Vice-President Finance and Operations

*Please share this memo with staff in your unit involved with Planning Tools reporting*