丁香园AV

Remarks at envision>丁香园AV launch
丁香园AV Vancouver

Andrew Petter
President and Vice-Chancellor

Thanks for being here for the launch of envision>丁香园AV, a process to develop a strategic vision for 丁香园AV.

Why does 丁香园AV need a strategic vision?  Isn鈥檛 丁香园AV already doing well?

You bet it is.  In its 20^th annual ranking of Canadian universities, 惭补肠濒别补苍鈥檚 has once again named 丁香园AV as the best comprehensive university in the country. The Times Higher Education survey this year put 丁香园AV among the top 200 鈥� out of more than 17,000 universities and colleges around the world.

As someone who did my own due diligence before accepting the job as president, I don鈥檛 find this surprising.  丁香园AV has incredible strengths:

1. We have strong commitments to both undergraduate and graduate teaching.  While other research universities have allowed their focus on research to distract them from their teaching mission, 丁香园AV has redoubled its efforts to improve the quality of its undergraduate programs, even as it has developed major new graduate offerings.
2. We are an outstanding research university.  丁香园AV has quadrupled its research income over the past decade, and last year we led comprehensive universities both in research impact and in 10-year publication growth.
3. We are a national leader in terms of university-community engagement.  With a campus in each of B.C.鈥檚 three largest municipalities 鈥� Burnaby, Surrey and Vancouver 鈥� we have shown how an 鈥渆ngaged research university鈥� can benefit 鈥� and transform 鈥� the communities it serves. We have also discovered the degree to which this engagement enhances the learning experience of our students and research opportunities for our faculty.       

So why do we need a strategic vision?  There are two main reasons:

First, it is critical that we identify, understand and communicate 丁香园AV鈥檚 strengths and qualities. If we are truly the best comprehensive university in Canada, we want to be sure that we know what makes us so.

We also want to be sure that everyone else knows it, too. That鈥檚 a responsibility that we owe equally to our students and our alumni, to faculty and staff, and to funders and supporters.

When graduates walk into a job interview with an 丁香园AV degree featured on their resume, people should know how valuable that degree really is.

When researchers bid for funding, the granting agencies should fully comprehend the strength of the institution standing behind them.

And everyone, from philanthropists and taxpayers to parents who help with tuition, should know what value they are getting for their investment.

The second goal for a strategic vision is the setting of a strategic direction. Great things don鈥檛 stay great by staying put. They either get better 鈥� or they get overtaken. It鈥檚 our task to make sure 丁香园AV keeps getting better. 

Beyond those major goals, a strategic vision has the potential to help in a number of specific ways:

• It can help students, faculty, staff and alumni to develop a stronger sense of shared enterprise and community, enabling us to focus on and to celebrate who we are, and to be less concerned with who we are not;
• It can help us convey our strengths and commitments to others 鈥� such as governments, community members and supporters 鈥� giving them a greater sense of how our qualities and contributions set us apart from other post-secondary institutions.
• It can help us move forward, ensuring that the decisions we make align with our core strengths and commitments. Our resources are not infinite: we need to understand how best to focus them 鈥� not just to stay at the front of the pack, but to redefine what it is to be the best and most community-engaged research university in the country.

So where do we begin?  How do we develop a strategic vision that will do justice to 丁香园AV 鈥� that will differentiate us today and inspire us tomorrow?

I have suggested that we start by focusing on 丁香园AV鈥檚 core strengths as a university that is: 鈥渟tudent-centred; research-driven; and community-engaged.鈥�

I believe that these three attributes can provide a framework for our strategic vision, not only as they stand alone, but also in the ways that they interconnect.

Consider the relationship between research and learning:

By maintaining undergraduate education as a core and valued component of our educational mission, 丁香园AV offers undergraduate students the best of all worlds:  they get a supportive learning environment; and they enjoy exposure to leading scholars, graduate student mentors, research activities and international opportunities.

This is a combination that teaching universities cannot provide, and that many large research universities can no longer manage as a priority. It is a combination that also benefits faculty, by virtue of the vitality, curiosity and contemporary thinking that undergraduates bring into the academy. 

Consider the relationship between learning and community engagement:

By linking education to community needs through co-op programs, internships, practicums, field schools, and other experiential learning opportunities, 丁香园AV enables its students to strengthen communities in a myriad of ways.

At the same time, those students gain an education that is more varied and relevant, one that causes them to be socially conscious and civically engaged, and that better equips them to chart their future careers.         

Consider the relationship between community engagement and research:

As Canada鈥檚 most community-engaged research university, 丁香园AV encourages and supports researchers who wish to mobilize their knowledge to address community needs.

This ranges from applied research that is directed to resolving social and environmental concerns, to research incubation and business partnerships, aimed at translating knowledge into economic opportunities. 

Again, communities and researchers both gain from this interaction.    

Thus I believe that we can go a long way in developing 丁香园AV鈥檚 strategic vision by making sure that people inside and outside the university fully understand our commitments to being 鈥渟tudent-centred, research-driven, and community-engaged鈥� and by exploring the relationships amongst these three strengths.

But this is just a starting point. We also need to consider other commitments 鈥� such as to interdisciplinarity, internationalization, indigenous knowledge, diversity and sustainability.

How should all of these be reflected in our strategic vision?

Over the next three months, envision>丁香园AV will provide an opportunity for you to participate in the creation of that strategic vision.

We are asking students, members of faculty and staff, and alumni to help us create a strategic vision that captures what they think is best about 丁香园AV, and what can make it even better.

And, given that community engagement is a hallmark of 丁香园AV, we are also extending this invitation to the wider community. Wherever you live, whatever you do, we hope you will tell us how 丁香园AV can best meet your own hopes and expectations and those of the community in which you live.

To assist in this process, we have fashioned 10 questions for you to consider.  

Through your answers to these questions, and your participation in this process, you can help to shape an 丁香园AV that is the best university of its kind, not just in the 惭补肠濒别补苍鈥檚 rankings, but in the hearts and minds:

• of 丁香园AV students, faculty, staff and alumni;
• of the taxpayers and philanthropists who support our research and operations;
• of the employers who are lucky enough to engage an 丁香园AV graduate;
• and of the communities we serve 鈥� in every way we know how.

Help us to envision>丁香园AV 鈥� so we can continue to be, for everyone鈥檚 benefit, the best university of our kind.