Graduate Studies Strategic Plan 2018 - 2020

Create, Experience, and Thrive Directions for Graduate Education at the University of Lethbridge 2018 - 2020

MISSION Our graduate students, their accomplishments, and their future embody our identity as a comprehensive academic and research institute. Our core mission is rooted in our commitment to them.

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Create: we will empower our graduate students with the education to create new knowledge, and to elevate and advance the boundaries of scholarship, research, and creative activity.

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Experience: we will prepare our graduate students with experiential learning, and the skill sets that are necessary to solve the complex problems of today and the future.

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Thrive: we will support our graduate students in mentorship, collaboration, and training so they may thrive through a lifetime of personal, academic and career success.

OBJECTIVES Driven by our mission of commitment to our students, the University of Lethbridge will continue to develop, expand, and enhance graduate education through the dedicated and directed pursuit of four objectives.

OBJECTIVE 1:

OBJECTIVE 2:

STRATEGIC GROWTH AND DIVERSIFICATION

VIBRANT GRADUATE STUDENT CULTURE

We will grow and diversify our graduate

We will cultivate a campus culture where graduate

programs, and our graduate student population,

students across all programs can be connected

in a manner that clearly reflects the university’s

and their accomplishments can be celebrated.

strategic academic and research priorities,

This requires ongoing commitment and support

and in ways that operationalize our university’s

for meaningful graduate student symposia,

ardent commitment to academic quality and

conferences, and other student-driven initiatives

research excellence. Graduate growth and

that respond thoughtfully to the work and the

diversification will be connected to a clear and

social needs of a diverse student population,

consensual understanding of university capacity

including Indigenous and International graduate

in all of its dimensions, including availability of

students. It also requires a comprehensive

faculty supervisors, spaces for graduate student

commitment to inclusion, such that the presence

research and creative activity, funds for graduate

and concerns of graduate students are seamlessly

student financial support, resources for graduate

woven into all broader university initiatives to

marketing and recruitment, and services to

improve campus life.

support the graduate student lifecycle and experience.

OBJECTIVE 3:

OBJECTIVE 4:

COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE We will create opportunities for a comprehensive

SUPPORTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

graduate experience, beyond the boundaries

We will sustain and continuously improve an

of academic programs. To that end, we will

organizational environment that is efficient,

cultivate the values of liberal education through

effective, respectful, and which supports an

increased opportunities for experiential learning

exemplary graduate experience for students,

and transdisciplinary scholarship at the graduate

their supervisors, and university staff. We will

level. We will honour the recommendations

continue to audit and improve policies, as well as

of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation

digitize and automate all processes, related to the

Commission through the Indigenization of selected

graduate student lifecycle. We will continue to

graduate programs, curricula, assistantships,

critically assess and optimize the organizational

and culminating activities. We will provide

relationships between the School of Graduate

a continuously supportive graduate student

Studies and other academic, service, and

experience, through a commitment to ongoing

administrative units on campus. We will maintain a

orientation, from inquiry through to convocation

commitment to the quality assurance, and ongoing

and beyond.

enhancement, of all graduate programs at the University of Lethbridge.

ACTION As a Comprehensive Academic and Research

and mission as a comprehensive university. The

Institute in the Province of Alberta, the academic

Academic Plan likewise highlights the priority of

and research portfolios at the University

exemplary research experiences for graduate

of Lethbridge are mutually supportive and

students across the disciplines, the importance of

fundamentally interconnected. Thus, the

academic quality in our graduate programs, and a

University of Lethbridge Academic Plan and the

commitment to cultivate an enriching and multi-

University of Lethbridge Strategic Research Plan

faceted graduate experience for our students.

together form a strategic overlay to inform and support our Directions for Graduate Education.

Supported by this broader strategic overlay,

The Strategic Research Plan highlights the

our Directions for Graduate Education are

importance of excellence in graduate student

operationalized through the School of Graduate

research, creative activity, and professional training

Studies Academic Unit Plan. To that end, the

as foundational aspects of our core function

School of Graduate Studies Academic Unit Plan

shall annually identify, update, and articulate specific operational initiatives, projects, and programs which clearly and directly advance our Directions for Graduate Education and the four strategic objectives: 1) Strategic growth and diversification; 2) Vibrant graduate student culture; 3) Comprehensive graduate experience; and 4) Supportive organizational environment. The School of Graduate Studies Academic Unit Plan shall also identify metrics and report on outcomes required for assessing progress and success in achieving these strategic objectives.