Vision 2027

Setting the Conditions for Success

Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE) is entering a new period of growth and transformation, building on the momentum that has been generated over the past decade.

We are responding to the changing needs of our students and community, and putting a strategy in place to support our existing plans and advance new focus areas that will contribute to our long-term success.

Vision 2027’s Ten-Point Roadmap

Vision 2027, published in 2021, is a roadmap for President and Vice-Chancellor Tim Loreman’s second term, and sets the conditions for CUE to evolve, push boundaries and reach our full potential.

Click on the images below for an overview of each milestone.

Staying True To Our Mission and Vision

• We are committed to advancing our institutional mission and vision.
• Our master story continues to resonate and will be referenced in the future.
• We will work to ensure the decisions we make are aligned with our mission and vision.

Students First

• We are guided by the same simple philosophy that has been with us for 100 years: Students first.
• Whatever approach we take to instruction, we will be mindful of the need to devote attention to individual students.

Becoming Canada’s Pre-Eminent Small University

• While we have made progress towards realizing our potential, a lasting reputation is not built upon only a few years of success. Rather, that success needs to be sustained and advanced over a long period of time.
• We are focused on offering exceptional programs, encouraging research and innovation, and engaging in meaningful local, national, and international partnerships.
• We will work to build our alumni network and we will be intentional in our efforts to establish strong, positive relationships with our alumni.

Emphasizing Inclusion

• We will take an action-oriented approach to inclusion aimed at dismantling barriers to participation.
• In 2020, our Board of Governors approved a statement on inclusion and diversity at CUE that will continue to guide us.
• Our leadership will create space for discussion and debate while providing adequate support and taking meaningful, concrete actions aligned with our our purpose as a university.

Leading Change through Moderation, Collegiality, And Kindness

• We want our students, faculty, and staff to feel safe and supported to engage in critical thinking and reasoned, scholarly, open dialogue.
• A university is a community of scholars—an institution of learning and knowledge production. Social issues and injustices are therefore best addressed through what a university does: Conducting research, engaging in critical thinking, considering different and perhaps uncomfortable viewpoints, providing arguments supported by evidence or logic, and coming to any discussion with respect for those who might not agree with us.

Strengthening Indigenous Engagement

• In recent years, CUE has renewed our focus on Indigenous engagement and focused on establishing strong relationships with individuals and communities.
• We must act to address historical wrongs and implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s recommendations, and to foster a space where Indigenous students and scholars feel supported, heard, cared for, and valued.

Enhancing Student Supports

• The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we think, act, and make decisions. While everyone has been impacted by the pandemic, it is important to recognize that some groups have been impacted disproportionately, including our students.
• Over the coming months and years, our leadership will emphasize the importance of mental health and will advance initiatives, services, and programs with proven effectiveness.

Flexible Course Delivery and Flexible Working Arrangements

• Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, CUE demonstrated very little enthusiasm for online and distance learning, as well as remote working. This has now very quickly become an outdated way of viewing the work and study experience.
• Currently, we are building the capacity to offer courses in a variety of formats, including in-person, online, and a new blended format that offers both online and in-person experiences according to the demands of the course and needs of the students, along with other high-impact teaching practices.
• Our challenge has been to find the best path forward to meet the needs of our current and future students without compromising our campus experience, and we know that flexible delivery will allow us to build on our strengths and elevate our programs while maintaining our ethos as an institution.

Ensuring Sustainability

• At CUE, we are focused on ensuring sustainability in a number of areas:
  • Growth. Since 2012, we have been working towards the goal of welcoming 4,000 students to our campus. During President Loreman’s first term, we went from approximately 1,600 students to the near desired 4,000. Now, we are engaging in Strategic Enrolment Management to help us better manage our growth and stabilize our enrolment.
  • Financial Sustainability. We must do everything in our power to ensure that we are financially sustainable. It is critical to reach our goals and realize our potential, and we cannot put students first if we do not have enough money to provide for them. One key focus will be growing our endowment, which is currently small and may impact our future prosperity and ability to provide financial relief to students.
  • Facilities. Connected to our goal of welcoming 4,000 students to CUE is the need for new facilities, including a new academic building and a dormitory. Plans are already well underway to construct a substantial new academic building replacing the current parking lot on the west edge of campus.
  • Climate Leadership. To date, CUE has done little in the way of climate leadership and it is time to act. Over the past year, we have taken steps to lead initiatives, and our intent is to build and improve on the work that has started to become a greener university.
  • Community Engagement. Our recent growth and evolving needs have prompted the desire to engage more with our neighbours and surrounding community. In 2020, we developed a new administrative policy to facilitate local community engagement and inclusion at CUE, which is now being implemented.

Strengthening Our Community

• Looking forward to 2027, we want to be a community that places our students in the foreground of our work, takes our role in scholarship and knowledge dissemination seriously, understands our place in the Edmonton post-secondary ecosystem, and is innovative and nimble.
• We need not always agree or avoid difficult decisions and conversations when they are necessary; however, we need to continue to be a place that prioritizes empathy, compassion, and respect.