What is it that sets Western apart from institutions across the province? As Western joins Ontario postsecondary institutions in ongoing Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA) renewal discussions with the provincial government, members of the campus community are invited to discuss just that at a town hall meeting Thursday.
Stipulated by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development, the SMA outlines the role each university or college performs within Ontario’s postsecondary system and how each institution will build on its current strengths to achieve its vision and help drive system-wide objectives. Western’s current SMA was approved in April 2014 and expires next month. The new SMA, referred to as SMA 2, comes into effect next month and runs through March 2020.
“The big addition between SMA 1 and SMA 2 is that SMA 2 is coincident with the government changing the funding model for universities – that part of this negotiation will be done with Institutional Planning and Budgeting,” said Janice Deakin, Western’s Provost & Vice-President (Academic), who is hosting the town hall.
“The second component is, the government is even more interested in a differentiation strategy amongst the 22 universities and colleges in Ontario and has identified five general areas of differentiation. They are asking institutions to differentiate on five priority areas,” she added.
In drafting a new SMA, the ministry has asked Ontario’s universities to present how they stand apart in five key categories: student experience; innovation in teaching and learning excellence; access in equity; research excellence and impact; and innovation, economic development and community engagement. The ministry has identified a number of system-wide metrics and has asked universities to identify institutional metrics to measure strengths and differences in each category.
“The purpose of my town hall will be to outline, at a high level, the general marching orders of the SMA document and process, and then to discuss both the system-wide metrics that will be imposed by the ministry, and the potential institutional metrics – things that we could use or develop that would speak to our progress on these five priority areas,” Deakin added.
As Western continues to be guided by its Strategic Plan, the university is well positioned to negotiate a new SMA and present its strengths to the ministry, she explained. In SMA 1, Western identified five areas of program strengths and four areas of possible expansion.
SMA 2 is a natural progression, Deakin noted, with a nod to the four pillars of the current Strategic Plan.
“Among our four pillars – Raising our Expectations; Leading and Learning; Alumni Engagement; and Taking Charge of Our Destiny – the first two, and the key performance indicators we measure ourselves against annually, map very nicely with the SMA-related metrics being proposed by the government,” she continued.
“We have a culture at Western of both developing and executing strategic plans and measuring ourselves on an annual basis, for our Board and for the government, through various reports. We are in a very good position; 8 of 14 of our annual key performance indicators speak to SMA metrics.”
In preparation for renewing Western’s SMA, Deakin hopes to see an engaging and open discussion at the town hall.
Western’s current SMA document is accessible online at https://www.uwo.ca/pvp/downloads/WesternAgreement.pdf
IF YOU GO
A town hall to discuss Western’s Strategic Mandate Agreement with the provincial government is set for noon Thursday, March 23, in Room 1059 of the Spencer Engineering Building.