Expanding Minds, Inspiring Hearts
St. Mary’s University Strategic Plan (2024-2029)
Welcome to St. Mary’s University’s new Strategic Plan, a dynamic roadmap that outlines our institution’s vision, mission, and key priorities for the next five years. Our plan, Expanding Minds, Inspiring Hearts, reflects our commitment to excellence, innovation, and service to our community. With a focus on people first, academic excellence, celebrating our identity, and building for growth, we aim to cultivate a transformative educational experience that prepares our students to thrive in a rapidly evolving world. Join us as we embark on this journey to shape the future of St. Mary’s University and empower our students to make a positive impact on society.
What’s New?
What makes St. Mary’s new and special? In short, a renewed emphasis on our people and an enhanced celebration of our unique place in this world. As the only independent Catholic University in Western Canada, we take pride in celebrating our faith and we are leaning in with a more intentional focus on equipping our students to navigate the challenges they will face as global citizens. Springing from the liberal arts and sciences tradition and undergirded by enduring and living Catholic values, our graduates are prepared to bring peace, social justice, and change in communities around the world.
Our Vision
To be the preeminent Catholic University in Canada, known as a centre of academic excellence providing a vibrant and engaged student experience that prepares authentic leaders committed to the service of others.
Our Mission
Open to all and grounded in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, St. Mary’s University educates the whole person to inspire and empower tomorrow’s engaged, global citizens for the future.
Our Strategies
People
First
Offer a stellar experience for all members of the University community.
- Cultivate a welcoming, inclusive, and safe environment
- Provide a positive employee
experience - Enhance the student experience: mind, body, and spirit
Celebrating Our Identity
Ensure that every aspect of the university is clearly and distinctively grounded in our mission and vision.
- Develop a shared appreciation for the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and how it shapes our work
- Build awareness of the University
- Enhance the campus to become a gathering place for all
- Foster commitment to Truth & Reconciliation
- Build an alumni program
Academic
Excellence
Aim for the highest
standards of academic and professional excellence.
- Create an academic plan
- Enhance our emphasis on
learning engagement - Develop a greater emphasis
on research
Building
for Growth
Provide sufficient growth and capital infrastructure to ensure a vibrant, challenging, and uplifting student-centered university experience.
- Develop a master facilities plan
- Build a plan for student enrolment growth
- Develop a revenue generation plan
- Ensure accountability and transparency
As a Catholic community, we value:
We are student centered and believe in and value first and foremost our students’ authentic needs, enabling them to flourish in their life’s vocation. We celebrate and welcome people where they are. We see each person in our community as a unique human being, respecting their inherent rights and honouring their dignity. We value all individuals regardless of their culture, sex, talents, religion, race, perspectives, and social conditions. We are committed to Indigenous Truth and Reconciliation, desiring to weave Reconciliation and Indigenous ways of knowing into the fabric of our community. We aim to serve others in ways that create community, connect people, and promote social justice.
We believe in pursuing academic excellence in teaching, learning, research, and creative enquiry. Recognizing academic freedom as fundamental to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, we value the rich history and complexity of human thinking while engaging the intellectual potential of every student learner. Our students receive a holistic education, that respects reason and faith and which promotes democratic, global citizenship as well as ethical leadership, and — in discovering beauty, goodness, and truth — awakens in each a desire to transform the world.
We cherish faith, and we uphold a Christian worldview as revealed and interpreted over time through Sacred Scripture and Catholic teaching. We uphold the complementary nature of faith and reason and aim to foster this relationship in all we do. Further, as part of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, we welcome all knowing that you do not have to be Catholic to believe that every human life is sacred; in the dignity of the poor; the common good; social responsibility; and that the earth is a gift to be shared.