Academic Excellence and Renewal
On June 16, 2016, Senate approved the
Support for Faculty Members
We must continue to strengthen our academic environment and our teaching. We have developed a reputation for academic excellence and this must be reinforced as a core strength. We need to understand the specific needs of our faculty members for pedagogical support. We must continue to bolster existing resources and ensure that supports for faculty enable them to achieve success in teaching and research. Best practices in these areas must be identified, shared, reinforced, and supported. The work of the library is related to faculty research, student experience, student success, knowledge mobilization, and Indigenization. As such, we must work to expand its capacity as a hub for research, collaboration, and learning.
The Role of Technology and Experiential Learning
We believe that there is no substitute for face-to-face instruction in a classroom setting, and this will remain our predominant method of delivering a high quality educational experience. We must also adapt to the signals in our environment and develop a response by incorporating technology and experiential learning in ways that enhance learning. We must be strategic in our choices so that technology supports students, as well as faculty needs. We need to articulate clearly what the role and institutional goals are for both online and experiential learning.
Maintaining Our Size
Our size, approximately 10,000 full- and part-time students over the course of a year, is seen as one of our key strengths. At UWinnipeg, students and faculty get to know one another, and undergraduate students are afforded wonderful opportunities to contribute to research and scholarly work. This experience gives students an advantage and sets them apart from their peers. Going forward, we should ensure that any student body growth does not jeopardize this foundational element of our identity.
Program Development
We must make thoughtful decisions about staffing, program expansion, and program refinement. Via a well understood direction and a transparent process for making these decisions. We must be intentional and strategic with our growth in graduate programming and we must ensure that existing academic programs are operating efficiently and effectively. We are both an undergraduate and graduate institution, but graduate programming must not be pursued at the expense of our ability to deliver an exceptional undergraduate education.
PACE (Professional, Applied, and Continuing Education), ELP (English Language Program), and the Collegiate offer a wide variety of programs and continue to see growth in their enrolments. We must fully understand and continue to develop their roles as pathways into UWinnipeg with a a direct link to the mission of our University.
Faculty Succession
A significant number of our most experienced and dedicated faculty are at a time in their careers when they may start considering retirement. We must be strategic in hiring new faculty to ensure that there is a good fit with our institutional needs and priorities. We must continue to ensure that we are hiring those whose commitment to teaching and research align with our high standards of excellence, while meeting student demand for our established programs and supporting new areas of development and scholarly interests.