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Vice-President Academic and Provost

Assessment centre and process improvements

January 30, 2026

Dear colleagues,

I am writing with important updates regarding UVic’s approach to academic accommodations.

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to support students who require accommodations. Your feedback has been instrumental in shaping this work and has underscored the value of strengthened, centralized assessment supports.

UVic remains firmly committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming learning environment. Nearly 20% of our student population is registered with the Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL). While this growth reflects important progress in access to post-secondary education, it has also placed increasing pressure on instructors, staff, and systems—particularly with respect to in-person, invigilated accommodated assessments, as many of you have experienced in recent years.

Establishment of a centre for accommodated assessments

Within this context, we have prioritized funding to establish a centre for accommodated assessments to support students with registered accommodation needs, operated by the Office of the Registrar and Enrolment Management (OREM). The centre will build on lessons learned over the past three years of enhanced central accommodated assessment services, which are continuing and being regularized.

We are consulting on an appropriate space and developing a project plan, targeting the opening of a dedicated assessment centre in 2027. In the meantime, OREM will continue to coordinate assessment spaces in Clearihue and Human and Social Development. Ahead of opening, a new web page will be developed to provide practical information about the new centre for accommodated assessments.

The centre for accommodated assessments is one component of a broader approach. Continued progress toward access-centred teaching and assessment practices, including the implementation of faculty accessibility strategies, remains essential. I want to recognize the many people across campus who are working hard to advance our pedagogical work.

Process improvements

I’m also pleased to share that CAL, working with campus partners, has implemented a series of process improvements to strengthen coordination and administrative efficiencies. These include expanded academic accommodation summaries, now provided to all instructors and updated daily, with work underway to replace them with a more robust, Banner-integrated web application. CAL and the Division of Learning and Teaching Innovation are exploring the feasibility of partial integration of accommodation information into Brightspace.

Additional improvements include faster deployment of classroom furniture accommodations and strengthened assessment workflows. These changes are resulting in clearer communications, reduced duplication in final exam processes, greater stability from term to term, and improved coordination with OREM.

Additional information

More information about these and other related initiatives are available on the VPAC website. We will share further information about the centre this spring as our plans develop. We know that there is much work to come, and we will continue to listen and consult as we move this work forward.

Thank you for your continued engagement in advancing access-centred education at UVic, and I look forward to our ongoing work together.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Croft, PhD
Vice-President Academic and Provost
University of Victoria