Message from the President
Under the direction of the Committee on Academic Planning and the supervision of the Senate and the Board of Governors, the University of Ottawa is launching a strategic planning exercise.
The University’s last planning initiative undertaken in 2004-2005 allowed us to identify our main directions and led to the Vision 2010 plan. Since then, the University of Ottawa has evolved: over the past five years, 240 faculty positions have been created and roughly 500 professors have been hired; our overall student population has grown from 31,500 to nearly 38,000, including a 38 % increase at the graduate level; approximately 50 new programs have been launched; and a broad range of developments has taken place on the research front, including the establishment of 55 Canada research chairs. That is why this is the right time to reflect once again collectively on our current reality and on our future.
Strategic planning can generate major change, re-align the institution and bring key challenges and issues into brighter, sharper focus. This exercise is a community-wide effort. Everyone, including our external partners, is called upon to ask fundamental questions about the nature and mission of the institution, to reflect on the conditions for success and, ultimately, to produce a widely supported strategic plan that serves as a call to action throughout the institution.
Strategic planning helps craft a collective vision, which in turn produces a reassuring measure of stability and continuity within our community. It also provides individual units with the opportunity to define themselves as part of the institution as a whole and to bring their actions into step with a common vision.
By adopting a clearly defined plan, the University of Ottawa can respond to the legitimate expectations of the society it serves. The strategic plan informs our stakeholders of our values and priorities and describes both where we are at the time the plan is written and where we want to be in the foreseeable future.
The global economic crisis and the financial situation facing postsecondary institutions should not deter us from setting objectives that will challenge our students, professors, staff and community. With the right strategic plan, we will be able to ensure that our collective success has a positive impact right across our city, our province and our country, and even around the world.
Allan Rock
President and Vice-Chancellor