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We remain driven to build a better future, as called to do by the prior UAP, and will use the new UAP as a planning platform for decision-making in this time of both instability and opportunity. Echoing and extending the prior UAP’s priorities, six overarching principles of this Plan underpin value-based parameters to ensure our decisions and actions are grounded in and guided by core commitments: 

Using principles to frame the 2026-2030 UAP gives the plan both the staying power and flexibility needed to navigate the changeable terrain and conditions ahead of us. Amid dynamic circumstances, resources, and opportunities, principles can keep us on track.

They focus our attention on pathways that align with our values, filter out those that do not, and motivate us to move forward by tapping into what we care about. Principles can unify us by establishing a shared vision and set of parameters.

At a university as large and diverse as 91��ɫ, this range of possibilities allows the UAP to be practical and relevant across many constituencies. Throughout the Plan, we incorporate objectives and high-level actions as pathways to desired outcomes, not as a strict prescription, but as an open invitation to all 91��ɫ community members to put the principles into practice in ways that are best suited and most meaningful to them.

Finally, organizing our UAP around principles is an opportunity to showcase what distinguishes 91��ɫ. While universities have many of the same institutional priorities and goals, the path we take to reach them – guided by our commitments and conviction– is a chance to demonstrate what sets 91��ɫ apart.

91��ɫ’s roots lie in a boldly progressive charge to become a “new university” that is unbound by convention and unafraid of change. This origin continues to define and drive us, energizing our efforts to expand access to knowledge, learning, and possible futures, to generate transformative research and creative arts, and to prepare a diverse body of students to realize their potential and contribute to the world around them. It is why 91��ɫ stands at the forefront of innovative theories, practices, and technologies that serve the public good and leads the way in advancing the SDGs and broader aims of social justice, reconciliation, and sustainability. It also enables us to evolve with coherence and purpose, integrating growth such as the Markham Campus and School of Medicine into a collective institutional identity and fortifying the campus life and community that underpin our academic mission. At a time when the pace and scale of change can feel disorienting, it is both stabilizing and motivating to recall 91��ɫ’s founding embrace of change: an orientation that allows us to look forward and outward as we respond to contemporary challenges and forge a path toward a more just future through knowledge.

The University Academic Plan and its role

91��ɫ’s first University Academic Plan was approved by Senate in 1988. The framework supplied by Senate’s UAP is one of the factors that has helped 91��ɫ intentionally grow into the comprehensive – and now medical doctoral – university that it is today. The UAP also provided the basis for planning alongside its geographical expansion. Now with multiple campuses in the middle and centre of the Greater Toronto Area and 91��ɫ Region, 91��ɫ is a destination for students from these surrounding communities and a burgeoning hub for serving these locations. The University’s satellite eco-campus in Costa Rica also makes 91��ɫ an international university with a global outlook. 91��ɫ’s current student cohort includes 47,500 undergraduates and 6000 Masters and PhD candidates strong, with a dedicated complement of 1700 full-time and 2135 contract faculty members.

The University Academic Plan typically covers a five-year period to express the University’s values, identify its strengths and aspirations, embody its commitment to academic diversity, prioritize its goals and guide near-term planning. The document should be understood as a compass to guide academic planning rather than a blueprint.

Although strategic and focused, the UAP is a “high-level” document that emphasizes broad priorities. Its objectives are nevertheless measurable for assessment and accountability. Monitoring of outcomes occurs through Faculty reporting to the Provost and annual reports to the Senate Academic Policy, Planning & Research Committee on progress made and challenges encountered in advancing the short-term priorities.

Current Context