Following a comprehensive, year-long consultation with the campus community led by Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane, the university’s Board of Trustees has approved Queen’s new strategic framework. Developed out of consultations with faculty, staff, students, alumni, and stakeholders in Canada and abroad, the new strategy defines the mission, vision and values of Queen’s and identifies six strategic goals aimed at positioning Queen’s as a university committed to societal impact and positive change.
“More than a year ago, I began a comprehensive consultation process to better understand who we are as a university and why we are,” says Principal Deane, who met with several thousand Queen’s community stakeholders as part of The Conversation. “From that frank, thoughtful, and at times unflinchingly critical process emerged the components of a positive, forward-looking strategy for our institution – one that will make explicit that Queen’s is a university for the future.”
Principal Deane has established six working groups to advance the strategy in its next stage of implementation. Each working group corresponds with one of six strategic goals articulated in the framework, which include aiming to increase the university’s research impact; advancing the student learning experience; growing the interdependence between research and teaching; strengthening the university’s global engagement; deepening the university’s relationship with the local, regional, and national communities; and improving Queen’s organizational culture.
“Queen’s new strategy leads with an important vision statement that declares we are a community,” says Principal Deane. “In that spirit, I very much look forward to convening the working groups and, with their assistance, identifying ways by which we can realize our fullest potential as an institution.”
Each working group is led by a faculty champion and includes additional representatives from faculty, university senate, staff, and students. Chairs include Parvin Mousavi, Erik Knutsen, Ram Murty, Sandra den Otter, and Elaine Power. Ellie Sadinsky, a staff member, will co-chair the working group on organizational culture with a faculty member. The working groups will meet over June and July and are tasked with developing two or three operational priorities to align with the strategic goals. The groups will engage the community through public consultation and online feedback before finalizing their goals, which are to be presented to a steering committee, chaired by Principal Deane, in early August.
The steering committee – comprised of the chairs of the working groups, the senior leadership team, and the deans – will then combine the operational priorities into a plan to enable implementation of the new strategy in the early fall. Central to the realization of the strategy will be the university’s recent commitment to advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals; a commitment for which Queen’s was recently recognized as a national and global leader.
Learn more about the working groups, their composition, and mandates.
Originally published in the Queen's Gazette