Published Dec. 15, 2025
Leaders across campus shared accomplishments from the past year and looked forward to 2026.
This has been an amazing year for Adams School of Dentistry. We celebrated our 75th anniversary, launched a new strategic plan and continued to lead the way in education, patient care, research and service to our community. Our people are the key to our success, and I look forward to seeing what next year will bring for us.
We have so much to celebrate this past year in the College — a Pulitzer Prize winner, a finalist for the National Book Award, and the University’s first Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists laureate. In addition, we launched a seed funding program to help faculty bring their research and scholarly programs to life; members of the history department published a textbook helpful for anyone teaching a Foundations of American Democracy course across the UNC System; and we successfully welcomed about 500 additional first-year students to the College. I couldn’t be more proud and grateful for the dedication, thoughtfulness and creativity of the faculty and staff in the College.
In 2025, the UNC School of Education continued to propel the world through innovative research, practice and partnerships. Our faculty earned campus and national honors and secured competitive grants that will advance education and ensure the academic success and well-being of learners across North Carolina and beyond. This year, our K-2 Carolina Community Academy “graduated” its first second graders. That school and our partnership with Person County Schools continues to show us new ways to serve and what an outsized role education can play in a rural community. In 2026, we are excited to welcome students to a new, unique B.A.Ed. in Elementary Education program in the fall and to continue providing excellent academic programs and conducting important research that meets the diverse needs of learners, educators and organizations.
2025 was an important year as we learned that we would be founding partners in the creation of a new school at Carolina, along with the School of Data Science and Society. Our graduate program ranked No. 3 nationally (U.S. News & World Report), and our faculty earned major support from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation.
This past year marked a transformative moment for our University and for the future of data and information sciences. With the approval of our Master of Science and doctoral programs in data science, we’re empowering a new generation of leaders to use data for good — tackling real-world challenges and improving lives across North Carolina and beyond. We’re also reimagining what’s possible by uniting the School of Information and Library Science with the School of Data Science and Society. Together, we are building a new kind of school — one that combines deep expertise, human-centered values and bold thinking to shape a future where data and information sciences spark meaningful change in every community we serve.
The UNC School of Government continued to build upon its mission to improve the lives of North Carolinians. Many of our faculty and staff dedicated significant time and energy to essential research, teaching, and technical assistance in support of Helene recovery in western North Carolina. We served the everyday needs of those in state and local government, offering over 270 courses to more than 14,000 public officials. Faculty members produced practical scholarship that made tangible impacts, such as the newest Bench Book for N.C. District Court Judges and a guidebook series for governing boards of county human services agencies. Our highly ranked Master of Public Administration program welcomed its first cohort of students in the new “Service to Service” program, connecting veterans and military families with education pathways and careers in public service. Looking ahead, the school is excited to offer a record number of courses to N.C. public officials and launch a new undergraduate minor focused on law, government and public service.
Over the past year, Carolina Law continued its trend of excellence, achieving a record-high bar passage rate for first-time takers, strong graduate employment outcomes and its highest-ever ranking — No. 18 among all 194 law schools. At the same time, the school maintained its commitment to access by charging the lowest tuition among the top 20 law schools by a wide margin.
In 2025, the Gillings School of Global Public Health continued to show what public health excellence looks like — from Nabarun Dasgupta’s groundbreaking efforts to combat the opioid crisis to faculty discoveries and innovations ranging from malaria-preventing baby wraps to new strategies for cleaning up PFAS forever chemicals. Our students once again achieved remarkable success with 98% finding a job or continuing their education within one year of graduation. Our community remained steadfast in supporting western North Carolina in the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene and, in a year marked by both challenge and opportunity, leaned into science, service and partnership. As we look to 2026, we find our research priorities aligned more closely than ever with national needs, and I’m energized by what we will accomplish together.
I am incredibly proud of our School of Medicine faculty for all that they have accomplished over the last year. In the face of tremendous uncertainty, our faculty doubled down, submitting 15% more proposals this year — often condensing a monthslong process into weeks. Because of their resilience, we closed the year at $641 million in federal research funding, which will translate into discoveries that advance science and accelerate development of innovative treatments to decrease suffering.
2025 has been a year of extraordinary achievement for the school, driven by the passion and talent of our people. We led the nation in external research funding and residency match rates, launched a first-of-its-kind joint Master of Global Medicines Development with Monash University in Australia, and celebrated our PharmD students’ national victory in the Clinical Pharmacy Challenge. Our Asheville campus moved to the Mountain Area Health Education Center, marking an exciting new chapter that further strengthens our commitment to interprofessional education and to western North Carolina. Together, we continue advancing pharmacy research, education and practice to improve health locally and globally.
This has been a milestone year for the School of Nursing as we celebrated our 75th anniversary and honored generations of Carolina nurses. From providing children with free school health assessments and serving communities impacted by Hurricane Helene to improving cancer prevention and expanding access to cervical cancer screenings in rural North Carolina, Carolina nurses supported the health and well-being of our communities. We are preparing students to meet today’s most complex health care challenges through innovative teaching approaches like virtual reality simulation and remarkable growth in our online nurse practitioner programs. Our undergraduate program once again ranked among the very best in the nation — tying for fourth overall and first among public institutions — enrollment reached an all-time high of more than 650 students and our new state-of-the-art Nursing Education Building remains on track to open in early 2027 to help us address the state’s critical nursing workforce shortage.
It’s been a year of incredible growth for UNC Hussman. Our students won a seventh consecutive collegiate journalism national championship and earned top accolades in advertising, public relations and design competitions. Graduate students and faculty scholars were recognized for groundbreaking research. We introduced new graduate and certificate programs, creating more pathways for career advancement. We hosted ConvergeCon, which convened industry and academic leaders to explore the implications of AI and emerging trends in media and technology. These milestones, achieved by our dedicated students, faculty and staff, reflect Carolina’s tradition of serving citizens with meaningful impact.
The School of Civic Life and Leadership doubled the size of our faculty, increased semester enrollments by six-fold and welcomed 48 minors. We launched our residential college for civics, equipped 40 faculty from across the country to teach civil discourse and partnered with the UNC School of Government to facilitate civil discourse among legislators.
The School of Social Work had a highly productive year marked by innovation and growth, and the year ahead looks just as strong. Our graduate enrollment has risen 95% over four years, and we’re developing a bachelor’s program. Our researchers are on track to secure $70 million in grants and contracts next year, and with $20 million in private and public investment, we’ll help launch a transformative statewide workforce development initiative this spring to address a critical shortage of social workers in North Carolina.
UNC Kenan-Flagler created more opportunities to discover the positive power of business by expanding the Undergraduate Business Program and launching the Master of Science in Management. Looking ahead to 2026, we are excited for a new era of connection in Steven D. Bell Hall and innovation with BlueChipAI.
In 2025, The Graduate School charted new territory, finding creative ways to support our graduate students and make Carolina the top destination nationally for graduate education. Through our campus-wide Graduate Student Experience Initiative, we published new best practices related to well-being days and working conditions for graduate students, and we advanced training for teaching assistants and faculty mentors. We launched a new graduate research symposium, and we held the first ever Graduate School Community Tour. We also financially supported students through funding gaps, allowing them to continue their research. Looking forward, we are leading cross-campus engagement to position the University for expansion in online program enrollment, growing the impact Carolina graduate students have on our state and beyond.