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Academic Plan (2025-2030)
The SFU Academic Plan serves as a guide for actions that will advance鈥�What鈥檚 Next: The SFU Strategy鈥痮ver the next five years while affirming our institutional commitment to the academic mission.鈥疞ed by our values, including the values of academic freedom and critical thinking, the Academic Plan will help ensure learning, teaching and research remain at the forefront of all we do.
Community Consultation
The latest draft of the SFU Academic Plan (Draft #3 as of May 2025) is available here: SFU Academic Plan
Members of the university community were invited to share input on the draft SFU Academic Plan via a feedback survey by June 4, 2025. While the survey is now closed, feedback by email remains open at this time to the Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic at meholmes@sfu.ca.
Feedback gathered through this consultation process is intended to inform the institutional Academic Plan (as distinct from multi-year plans developed by individual faculties/units, guided by the focus areas of the SFU Academic Plan).
Collection Notice: The Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic collects personal information on behalf of SFU under the authority of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (RSBC 1996, c. 165). The personal information collected through this consultation process is related directly to and needed by the university to help inform academic planning. If you have any questions about the collection and use of this information, please contact Mary Holmes in the Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic at meholmes@sfu.ca.
Academic Planning Process
Focus Areas
Developed through a consultative and iterative planning process carried out in accordance with Senate Guidelines for Academic Plans, the draft SFU Academic Plan identifies the following focus areas that guide institutional and faculty/unit planning:
- Program Development and Curriculum Renewal
- Research Excellence
- Indigenization and Decolonization
- Inclusive Excellence and Access
- Internationalization and Global Engagement
- Institutional Effectiveness
The draft plan embeds the priorities set out in the SFU Strategic Research Plan to expand research activities, deepen our engagement with communities, and grow the impact of our scholars. The draft plan also addresses resource assumptions and implications in the current enrolment and budget environment.
Priorities and Goals
Early in the academic planning process (July 2024), each faculty/unit in the Provost鈥檚 portfolio prepared a priorities matrix considering the intersection between What鈥檚 Next: The SFU Strategy and the focus areas identified in the draft SFU Academic Plan.
Themes identified across faculty/unit priorities and through consultation with academic leaders, senate committees, interest groups, and service units outside the Provost鈥檚 portfolio helped shape the institutional priorities summarized in the SFU Academic Plan Priorities Matrix (November 2024).
The academic planning process was temporarily paused following federal government policy changes affecting international students, global economic instability, and indications of constraints on the provincial budget (January/February 2025). This pause enabled the planning team to revisit and update the resource assumptions underpinning Draft #3 of the SFU Academic Plan in the context of this challenging environment, and to outline high-level goals at an institutional level that support each of the focus areas of the plan and inform university-wide enrolment, faculty renewal, and budget planning (March/April 2025).
Next Steps
A final phase of consultation on the SFU Academic Plan (May/June 2025) includes further meetings with academic leaders and senate committees, as well as this broad-based call for feedback from the university community. The final version of the Academic Plan is anticipated to be presented to Senate in July 2025 and to the Board of Governors in September 2025.