The Undergraduate Education Initiatives (UEI) unit collaborates with faculty and departments across the campus to design, implement, and promote innovative, interdisciplinary educational programs for all lower-division students at UCLA.
Among UEI’s signature curricular initiatives are:
- UCLA's General Education curriculum, which was restructured in 2002 around three foundation areas, and is now required of all undergraduates;
- Freshman Clusters, the year-long, team-taught, interdisciplinary courses for freshmen that were nationally recognized in 2004 with the prestigious Hesburgh Award;
- Fiat Lux Freshman Seminars, which provide students with choices of more than 200 seminars each year that are designed to promote active learning through dialogue;
- The Writing II curriculum, a discipline-based writing course that is required for all UCLA undergraduates;
- Undergraduate Student Initiated Education (USIE), which involve select undergraduates in leading seminars on topics of their own choosing.
UEI also houses:
- The Center for Community Learning, which promotes citizenship, leadership and social justice through service learning, internships and other community-based learning experiences.
- The Center for Education Assessment (formerly the Office of Undergraduate Evaluation and Research (OUER), which provides assessment support for new curricular programs and administers the annual Senior Survey.
UEI also plays a key role in the “shared governance” process at UCLA through which faculty representatives and administrative leaders work together to develop and maintain curricula that serve over 25,000 undergraduate students. The unit provides analytical and administrative support to the College Faculty Executive Committee and the General Education Governance Committee, supports faculty advisory committees for each of the unit’s academic programs, and works closely with the Undergraduate Council of the Academic Senate on all matters of undergraduate education policy, programming, and oversight.