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University of Georgia Campus Plan Update 2025

Introduction and Institutional Mission
As the birthplace of public higher education in America, the University of Georgia provides an exceptional teaching and learning environment that fosters student success across a diverse community of learners. Guided by its land- and sea-grant mission, and by its motto, “to teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things,” UGA advances the economic, intellectual, cultural, and environmental well-being of Georgia and the nation.
The 2024–2025 academic year marked a period of exceptional progress, defined by record achievements in academics, research, and public service. UGA rose to No. 18 among the nation’s top public universities in U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 rankings, its tenth consecutive year in the top 20. Research and development expenditures reached an all-time high of $628.1 million, and UGA was ranked No. 1 nationally for research-based products brought to market. The University enrolled one of its most accomplished classes from nearly 48,000 applications, became one of only 9 public universities to achieve a 90% graduation rate, and maintained a 95% career outcomes rate within six months of graduation.
UGA’s faculty continued to earn national recognition, including elections to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. Beyond campus, the University generated a record $8.4 billion in statewide economic impact, while fundraising surpassed $275 million from nearly 70,000 alumni and friends. The endowment of the 1,000th need-based scholarship underscored UGA’s enduring commitment to access and affordability.

 

Success Inventory

Experiential Learning (University of Georgia-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Experiential Learning
Momentum Area: 
Purpose
Category: 
Access for Underserved Populations
Career/Major Exploration
First Year Experience
High Impact Practices
Pathways
Program Maps
Strategy/Project Description: 

Experiential Learning at the University of Georgia empowers every student to apply their learning in real-world contexts, equipping them with the competencies and expanded perspectives to thrive in the emerging, dynamic global society.  

Summary of Activities: 

Experiential Learning at the University of Georgia empowers every student to apply their learning in real-world contexts, equipping them with the competencies and expanded perspectives to thrive in the emerging, dynamic global society.  

Activity Status: 
Refining/Maintaining
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 
The Office of University Experiential Learning supports the University of Georgia Strategic Priority 1.1:  “Expand Experiential Learning opportunities for all students” through the following KPIs:
KPIs (Measured Annually):
1. Increase the number of approved experiential learning opportunities available to students to >3000 by FY2025; enabling the increase of the percentage of undergraduate students completing two or more approved experiential learning opportunities from ~40% to >55% by FY2025
2. Expand and accelerate the “EL@UGA brand/reputation” at the regional and national levels by FY2025
3. Expand undergraduate equity and access to all approved experiential learning opportunities (including service-learning, internships, study away, undergraduate research, etc.) through the launch of a formal experiential learning “direct gift menu” by FY2021 resulting in annual gifts >$500k by FY2023 and growing the EL Endowed Fund to >$3MM by FY2025.
Baseline Measure for Each KPI (AY2024-2025):
1. EL Portfolio of Approved Experiences and Completion: ~2,824* Transcript-eligible courses and non-credit activities have been approved through FY25 inclusive of 156 courses and 20 non-credit activities added in FY25. (*Not inclusive of all global courses as those are not added at the catalog level). 5,637 Students representing 69.51% of the FY25 Undergraduate Graduating Cohort completed two or more Transcript-eligible EL opportunities (FY25 Graduating Cohort n = 8,109).
2. Thought Leadership: OEL presented at several state and national events including the NSSC Annual Conference; the 2025 PINnacle State of Southern Innovation Summit; the AAC&U Global Education Conference; the UERU Annual Conference; and the Southwire Leadership Meeting. Additionally, one team member completed their Experiential Education Academy Certification through the Society for Experiential Education.
3. Access: OEL awarded $1,071,366 to students pursuing EL Opportunities and grew its future fund impact by establishing three new fund agreements valued at ~$175k
Progress and Adjustments: 
Signature Achievements:
1. Scaling Global Experiences for First Years: OEL strategically scaled the ELCA program footprint in FY25, serving 199 (+82% YOY) first year students across 7 programs operating in six countries.  Additionally, the OEL designed and launched a new diversified brand strategy to enable accelerated expansion of the program model across campus.
2. Increasing Access: In addition to a new record of EL Scholarship Awarding of $1,071,366 to 529 students in FY24, OEL established 3 additional fund agreements valued at ~$175k in future endowed funds in collaboration with DAR. FY25 marked OEL’s first fully year managing the GCS and All GA EL Funds, impacting 62 students with $180,782 in support (+377% YOY).  ELIP applications were migrated into InfoReady, significantly streamlining that process. 
FY25 Progress Highlights
1. Expanding EL Opportunities:  OEL directly added 152 new approved opportunities inclusive of a focus on expanding approved opportunities for underclassmen (+20).  Additionally, OEL secured 49 new industry partnerships in FY25; significantly expanding WIL opportunities for the fourth year in a row.
• Engaging Students in Approved Experiences: Collaboration with colleges, units and colleagues across campus enabled 32,324 transcript-eligible opportunities to be completed in FY25, an ~5% increase YOY.  This included completed opportunities in key strategic areas like:
• Global:  6,867 completed experiences
• Service-Learning:  7,647 completed experiences
• Internship / Work-Integrated Learning:  6,775 completed experiences
• Undergraduate Research:  3,782 completed experiences (Inclusive of students completing research through UGA’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities and UGA’s new VIPR Program which places undergraduates on vertically integrated project teams conducting research in areas ranging from machine learning to metabolomics and genomic editing among others.
• Ensuring Sustainable Technical Infrastructure: OEL collaborated with Kaptiv8 to transition the Office’s web infrastructure to WordPress, aligning the brand ethos to Office of Instruction templates.
• Connecting with Stakeholders: The comprehensive content strategy resulted in a 1,151% increase in engagement, and a growth in Instagram followers from 4,750 to > 5,250.  The OEL LinkedIn follower volume grew 17.6% YOY. In particular, OEL continued to facilitate the “Internship Working Group” launched in FY23; hosted EL Council Meetings; worked with OSSA and OSFA to transfer to GCS EL Scholarship Funds to OEL workstreams; and collaborated with OGE on the launch of EL Connect Abroad.
Areas for Improvement
1. OEL Team Bandwidth: Team bandwidth was exceeded in FY25. The addition of several scholarship funds, running Connect Abroad and ELIP all required a large percentage of staff time to manage.  
2. Assessment & Review: While some research and interviews were started (Elon, WI, UT Austin), the OEL still needs to formalize a proposal to enable a Periodic Review Process of currently approved experiences facilitated by the OEL.3. Portfolio Acceleration: Likely impacted by bandwidth challenges across the team, the pace of new opportunity creation slowed YOY, though the total volume of new global additions enabled OEL to exceed the goal.
Plan for the Year Ahead: 
For the 2025-2026 AY, the Office of University Experiential Learning has implemented an Operating Plan consisting of 8 objectives supported by 48 metric/time defined key results. Directly relevant to the core above KPIs and the noted Potential Changes identified in the Office’s After-Action Review, critical actions areas include:
1. EL Portfolio of Approved Experiences and Completion: Increase >60 new approved opportunities with a focus on adding >25 new EL approved activities for underclassmen. Expand the EL Connect Abroad program for first year students to serve >300 students.
2. Thought Leadership: Present at 3 professional events.
3. Access: Distribute >$1MM through EL Scholarship and Fund Initiatives. Secure >$500k in new EL Fund agreements.
Challenges and Support: 
As noted above, primary challenges are essentially three:
1. Technical Infrastructure
2. Team Bandwidth
3. Fund Expansion
 
Increasing automation and standardization with the operating procedures of the Office will directly impact 1 and 2 while our increasing collaboration with DAR will support 3.  The Office also added a Graduate Assistant for the 2025-2026 AY to enable bandwidth expansion.
Contact email: 
andrew.potter@uga.edu
Primary Contact: 
Andrew Potter, Director of the Office of University Experiential Learning

Transfer Student Success (University of Georgia-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Transfer Student Success
Momentum Area: 
Pathways
Category: 
Advising
Orientation
Transition to College
Strategy/Project Description: 

Improve graduation rates of transfer students through improved course articulation, addressing performance gaps in challenging gateway courses, and directed academic advising.

Summary of Activities: 

Improve graduation rates of transfer students through improved course articulation, addressing performance gaps in challenging gateway courses, and directed academic advising.

Activity Status: 
Studying
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

Full-Time, Transfer Sophomore 3-year graduation rate (4-years total)

Progress and Adjustments: 

A Transfer Student Working Group, consisting of leaders from the Office of Instruction and Office for Student Affairs, conducted their work in AY2024-25 and presented a set of recommendations in August 2025 to evaluate and reimagine the transfer student experience at the University of Georgia. 
UGA Admissions began using OneOrigin's Sia AIRR product starting in Spring 2025, which uses AI to extract the relevant data from college transcripts, to articulate that data to its UGA course equivalent, and then push this information into Banner/Athena, allowing a student to view it in DegreeWorks to monitor their path toward degree completion.
In Fall 2025, we created the Transfer Launch Seminar (TRLS 3001), a one-credit seminar course designed to help transfer students transition successfully during their first semester. The seminar fosters connections with faculty and peers, introduces students to UGA’s academic culture, policies, and resources, and strengthens academic and professional skills through discussion-based learning. Each section’s topical content aligns with the instructor’s discipline (akin to UGA’s First Year Odyssey Seminars), and instructors deploy student success programming personalized to their student population – including connecting students with major-related activities, internships, and experiential learning. Students also attend campus events to engage with the broader university mission, while participating faculty receive support, compensation, and funding for out-of-class activities to enhance student engagement.

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

Implementation of the Transfer Student Working Group plan is underway in Fall 2025 and will be reported in future years. In advance of a broader implementation, a new student progress survey targeting challenging gateway courses with gaps in performance by transfer students (DFW rate > 15%) was implemented this academic year.
Instruction and Student Affairs are partnering to change the structure of Transfer Student Orientation in Summer 2026. This new structure will result in an expanded academic advising window for transfer students, allowing for more one-on-one academic advising time for incoming transfer students.

Challenges and Support: 

N/A

Contact email: 
tmote@uga.edu
Primary Contact: 
Thomas Mote

Peer Learning Assistants (University of Georgia-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Peer Learning Assistants
Momentum Area: 
Pathways
Category: 
Mindset
Peer and Supplemental Instruction
Strategy/Project Description: 

The Peer Learning Assistants (PLAs) initiative is a cornerstone of UGA’s strategy to strengthen active learning across high-impact classrooms. Through this program, trained undergraduate students are embedded in large-enrollment, introductory and gateway courses, particularly those with historically high DFW rates, to support peer-to-peer instruction and engagement.
PLAs are recruited and trained by the Office for Student Success and Achievement (OSSA), where they develop core competencies in active 

Summary of Activities: 

The Peer Learning Assistants (PLAs) initiative is a cornerstone of UGA’s strategy to strengthen active learning across high-impact classrooms. Through this program, trained undergraduate students are embedded in large-enrollment, introductory and gateway courses, particularly those with historically high DFW rates, to support peer-to-peer instruction and engagement.
PLAs are recruited and trained by the Office for Student Success and Achievement (OSSA), where they develop core competencies in active 

Activity Status: 
Scaling
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 
Evaluation/Assessment Plan
The Peer Learning Assistants (PLA) program is evaluated on a semesterly basis to monitor progress toward its core objectives and assess its impact on student outcomes. The evaluation framework includes both quantitative and qualitative measures, with data collected and analyzed in collaboration with the Office of Assessment.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
• Student Impact: Evidence of positive influence on students’ academic performance
• Program Scale: Stability or growth in the number of PLAs recruited, hired, and trained each semester.
Baseline Measures:
• Student Impact: Preliminary data from Fall 2023 indicates that the PLA program enhances classroom engagement, both peer-to-peer and student-faculty, and positively influences students’ decisions to persist in their major.
• Program Scale: 120 PLAs hired annually as of Fall 2023.
Goals/Targets for Success:
• Student Impact: Demonstrated improvement in academic performance, learning disposition, and/or major retention among students served by PLAs.
• Program Scale: In response to increased demand, OSSA began targeted growth of 120 PLAs per semester (240 annually) beginning in Spring 2023 and then expanding again to 200 PLAs per semester (400 annually) beginning Fall 2025. 
Assessment Frequency and Duration:
• The PLA program is undergoing comprehensive assessment by the Office of Assessment. Early indicators affirm its positive impact on student academic performance. Evaluation occurs every semester on an ongoing basis to ensure continuous improvement and alignment with institutional goals
Progress and Adjustments: 
Progress and Adjustments
Since its launch, the PLA initiative has demonstrated measurable success in enhancing student engagement, academic performance, and retention in high-impact gateway courses. Early assessment data confirms that PLAs contribute meaningfully to peer-to-peer learning and foster stronger connections between students and faculty. 
Adjustments:
• As demand continues to grow, OSSA is refining recruitment pipelines to ensure high participation and a well-prepared PLA applicant pool.
• Additional support structures (e.g., peer mentoring, faculty development touchpoints) are being explored to sustain program quality at scale and deepen integration with course design.
Accomplishments:
• Successfully scaled the program from 120 PLAs annually (Fall 2023) to 240 PLAs per semester (360 annually) by Fall 2024, with further expansion to 400 annually targeted for Fall 2025.
• Collaborated with the Office of Assessment to implement a semesterly evaluation cycle, yielding early indicators of positive academic and attitudinal impact on participating student.
Plan for the Year Ahead: 
Plan for the Year Ahead In the coming year, the PLA program will focus on three key priorities:
1. Sustained Scaling: Continue expanding to meet the new target of 240 PLAs per semester (400 annually by Fall 2025), ensuring coverage across high-DFW gateway courses.
2. Integrated Assessment: Deepen collaboration with the Office of Assessment to analyze longitudinal data on student outcomes and refine program design based on findings. Preliminary data indicate that students in PLA-supported courses earn higher grades and experience lower DFW rates compared to their peers in non-PLA sections. These early results underscore the importance of sustained assessment and continuous improvement to maximize the program’s academic impact.
Challenges and Support: 

Sustaining Recruitment at Scale: As the program expands to 400 PLAs annually, maintaining a diverse, high-quality applicant pool across disciplines will require enhanced outreach and coordination.
Faculty Integration and Alignment: Ensuring consistent collaboration between PLAs and instructors requires new systems of communication and management at scale.
Resource Demands: Continued growth places pressure on OSSA’s staffing, training infrastructure, and budget. Sustaining quality at scale will require strategic investment and operational support.

Primary Contact: 
Leah Carmichael, Director of Active Learning

Academic Coaching (University of Georgia-2025)

Strategy/Project Name: 
Academic Coaching
Momentum Area: 
Mindset
Category: 
Mindset
Tutoring
Strategy/Project Description: 

UGA students are very well prepared. Ninety-one percent of the admitted Class of 2029 posted an average core high school GPA of 4.0 or higher, with 98% having completed at least one advanced course (such as AP, IB, or Dual Enrollment). Often such high-achieving students have never experienced any kind of failure. But the demanding pace of a research institution like UGA often poses significant and unexpected challenges for our students. Our Academic Coaching program provides direct, differentiated assistance for students as they navigate college, overcome challenges they encounter, achieve academic success, and ultimately graduate. Helping our students cultivate a productive academic mindset is an important part of this process. 
Housed within the Office for Student Success and Achievement, Academic Coaching offers UGA students the opportunity to meet with certified and trained Academic Coaches to discuss their pathways to success. Coaching empowers students to identify their strengths, explore evidence-based study strategies, reflect on their own learning, and ultimately develop a growth mindset. 
Typically, the coach and student work together to create a strategic learning plan that lays the groundwork for awareness of what strategies and practices will be necessary for success in UGA’s academic environment.  
Academic Coaching also plays a crucial role in UGA’s Connect & Complete Persistence Framework which is a set of academic policies for undergraduate students in academic difficulty. The goal of Connect & Complete is to provide timely intervention to prevent students from being dismissed. Students on academic warning are required to meet with an Academic Coach, to prevent them from moving to dismissal. When those students who are dismissed return to the university, they have a degree completion team that includes an Academic Coach, along with their academic advisor and a case worker from Student Care and Outreach to formulate a success plan.

 

Summary of Activities: 

UGA students are very well prepared. Ninety-one percent of the admitted Class of 2029 posted an average core high school GPA of 4.0 or higher, with 98% having completed at least one advanced course (such as AP, IB, or Dual Enrollment). Often such high-achieving students have never experienced any kind of failure. But the demanding pace of a research institution like UGA often poses significant and unexpected challenges for our students. Our Academic Coaching program provides direct, differentiated assistance for students as they navigate college, overcome challenges they encounter, achieve academic success, and ultimately graduate. Helping our students cultivate a productive academic mindset is an important part of this process. 
Housed within the Office for Student Success and Achievement, Academic Coaching offers UGA students the opportunity to meet with certified and trained Academic Coaches to discuss their pathways to success. Coaching empowers students to identify their strengths, explore evidence-based study strategies, reflect on their own learning, and ultimately develop a growth mindset. 
Typically, the coach and student work together to create a strategic learning plan that lays the groundwork for awareness of what strategies and practices will be necessary for success in UGA’s academic environment.  
Academic Coaching also plays a crucial role in UGA’s Connect & Complete Persistence Framework which is a set of academic policies for undergraduate students in academic difficulty. The goal of Connect & Complete is to provide timely intervention to prevent students from being dismissed. Students on academic warning are required to meet with an Academic Coach, to prevent them from moving to dismissal. When those students who are dismissed return to the university, they have a degree completion team that includes an Academic Coach, along with their academic advisor and a case worker from Student Care and Outreach to formulate a success plan.

 

Activity Status: 
Refining/Maintaining
Evaluation/Assessment plan: 

We consider several factors in our assessment of academic coaching. Each semester we review the number of coaching appointments, unique students served, self-select appointments requested, and professionals trained to serve as affiliate coaches. Additionally, we distribute pre- and post-surveys to students who participate in coaching, as well as survey coaches for their feedback on the impact of coaching. Finally, in partnership with Academic Advising, we review the impact of Degree Completion Team meetings on student persistence. 
Our goal is to grow the academic coaching program, while creating a framework to sustain a program that students and coaches find effective. We have demonstrated growth in the number of coaching appointments, unique students served, self-select appointments requested, and professionals trained to serve as coaches. Total coaching appointments increased from 602 in 2023-2024 to 1030 in 2024-2025. Unique students served increased from 417 in 2023-2024 to 761 in 2024-2025. Both total appointments and unique students served are inclusive of self-select appointments, and those students required to participate in coaching as part of the Connect and Complete framework. Self-select appointments requested increased from 108 in 2023-2024 to 356 in 2024-2025. Professionals trained to serve as affiliate coaches increased from 2 in 2023-2024 to 86 in 2024-2025. 
Student survey results (on a 1 to 5 Likert scale inventory from strongly disagree to strongly agree) indicate that students overall consider coaching highly useful (M=4.69, SD=0.52). The survey asked the respondents how likely they were to return for an additional coaching session in the future. Over 80% of the respondents indicated the likelihood of returning, providing further support for the usefulness of coaching.
Coach survey results (1 to 5 Likert scale inventory from strongly disagree to strongly agree) demonstrated that coaches perceived coaching to influence students’ perceived control over their academic performance (M = 4.08, SD = 0.90), sense of belonging (M = 4.00, SD = 0.85), and academic success (M = 3.92, SD = 0.90). Finally, assessment of the Degree Completion Team (DCT) model for students returning from Academic Probation, found that during the 2024-2025 academic year, students who completed a DCT were four times more likely to return to good academic standing that students without DCTs. 

Progress and Adjustments: 

In fall 2023, we partnered with InsideTrack Training and Development to offer both foundational and advanced levels of training and certification for academic coaches. By fall 2024, five faculty and staff members successfully completed the certification process to become fully credentialed InsideTrack trainers. During the 2024-2025 academic year, these trainers facilitated five Foundational Academic Coach training sessions, preparing 86 additional professionals to serve as affiliate academic coaches. While several professionals who complete the training have gone on to serve in this capacity, not all chose to do so. Efforts are underway to identify strategies that will strengthen the connection between training completion and active participation as affiliate coaches among faculty and staff.

Plan for the Year Ahead: 

During the 2025-2026 academic year, we are conducting a comprehensive review of the academic coaching program structure. We are exploring strategies to increase engagement and encourage more trained faculty and staff to serve as affiliate academic coaches.

Challenges and Support: 

None Currently

Primary Contact: 
Erin Weston, Assistant Director, Office for Student Success and Achievement
Cara Winston Simmons, Director, Office for Student Success and Achievement

Supplemental Updates

The University of Georgia continues to invest in additional key student success efforts on enhancing academic support and cultivating an active, engaging learning environment that equips students for success at UGA and beyond. Additional ongoing initiatives include:
• Active Learning Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP): UGA’s Active Learning QEP aims to transform undergraduate teaching and learning through instructor development, student preparation, and classroom redesign. 
• Innovative Learning Spaces: The Willis Center for Writing, the Presentation Collaboratory, and the Makerspace in the Miller Learning Center’s Creative Engagement Wing expand access to active learning environments and creative technologies.
• Georgia Commitment Scholarships (GCS): The GCS program provides need-based aid and support resources to undergraduates (renewable up to 8 semesters). The program has grown from 94 recipients in 2017-18 to 756 in 2024-25.
• ALL Georgia Program: UGA continues to provide a network or resources, common experiences, and a student scholars program for rural students.
These efforts reflect UGA’s sustained commitment to a student-centered learning environment that promotes engagement, persistence, and achievement across all levels of study
 

Observations and Next Steps

The University of Georgia has built a vibrant, world-class learning environment, supported by innovations such as the Active Learning QEP, the Experiential Learning requirement, and other strategic initiatives that deepen engagement and prepare students for success beyond graduation. 
Looking ahead, the University of Georgia is advancing plans to broaden its academic portfolio through the creation of two new schools: the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing. The School of Medicine received candidate status from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) in February 2025, with a decision on preliminary accreditation anticipated in February 2026. If granted, the School of Medicine will begin recruiting its inaugural class of medical students, followed by the launch of the School of Nursing, expected to enroll students as early as fall 2027. Together, these initiatives will strengthen Georgia’s healthcare workforce pipeline and enhance access to high-quality care across both rural and urban communities.
Fall 2025 enrollment reflects early results aligned with the priorities of UGA’s 2024–2028 Strategic Enrollment Plan, which focuses on sustaining a strong, balanced, and diverse student body while expanding academic capacity and improving student outcomes. Key initiatives include maintaining the size, residency balance, and academic quality of the first-year cohort through new housing, dining, and parking facilities and enhanced geographic representation. We are also placing a greater emphasis on the use of data to increase student retention and persistence, developing key dashboards to inform decisions and guide targeted investments. These insights help identify and address barriers to student success, particularly for first-generation and transfer students. 
The university aims to grow transfer enrollment to one transfer per two first-year students by tightening admission standards, expanding Georgia-based pathways, and improving advising resources. Graduate enrollment will increase through support for new online programs and a venture fund to develop high-demand offerings. To match enrollment growth, UGA will add 115 new tenure-track faculty to maintain our 17-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio. Finally, through continuation of the initiatives described in the preceding sections, UGA seeks to improve economic and social mobility by reducing student debt, removing barriers to timely graduation, and expanding graduate pathways that boost career earnings.
Through these Momentum-CCG goals and more, UGA is translating record performance into scalable systems that improve both access and student success outcomes. Investments in experiential learning, transfer pathways, peer learning, and academic coaching position UGA to sustain excellence in student success in the years ahead.