The University Materials Council (UMC) comprises department heads, chairpersons, directors, and group leaders from academic programs in the materials field in US, Canadian, and Australian universities.

It serves as a forum for department heads/chairs/directors of materials programs to share best practices in many areas related to materials science and engineering, including student recruitment, ABET accreditation, emerging research areas, ideas for curricular improvements, patent right policies in universities, implications of the latest materials related studies, and the health of research funding for materials science and engineering as well as a variety of other issues of interest to the academic community.