Western President Amit Chakma stressed this coming year is about translating aspirations into actionable items during his annual presidential priorities address, presented last week to university Senate.
“This year, my overarching priority is to ensure appropriate steps are undertaken to implement our recently approved Strategic Plan, Achieving Excellence on the World Stage. By design, this plan is aspirational in nature,” said Chakma, adding that translation will require significant attention from his entire leadership team.
The Strategic Plan has four key pillars:
- Raise expectations by creating a world-class research and scholarship culture;
- Lead in learning by providing Canada’s best education for tomorrow’s global leaders;
- Reach beyond campus by engaging alumni, community, institutional and international partners; and
- Take charge of Western’s destiny by generating and investing new resources in support of excellence.
Work on the first two pillars is well advanced through the leadership of the vice-presidents, particularly the provost and vice-president (Research), Chakma said.
“I will continue to focus on these two pillars at a high level. But, by virtue of the external leadership role of my position, I’ll be devoting considerable time to the latter two pillars, with a special emphasis on building and strengthening partnerships with both public and private sector partners,” he continued. “It is a job that cannot be done without the help of many.
“When we come together, we see great success.”
Chakma mentioned work on priorities from previous years continues as well including:
- Building Western’s capacity to attract the best students through the high quality, innovation, breadth and reputation of our academic programs, research, scholarship and outstanding learning environment;
- Cultivating a more research-intensive culture through continued emphasis on graduate enrolment expansion, development of innovative course-based masters programs and strategic investment in interdisciplinary areas of strength;
- Strengthening Western’s internationalization efforts through increased engagement with alumni, community and institutional partners in all areas of our teaching, learning, research and service mission;
- Monitoring and contributing to Ontario’s postsecondary education policy discussions while anticipating and managing the impact of policy shifts that may emerge;
- Playing a leadership role in advocating for greater public support of postsecondary research and internationalization agendas with the federal government;
- Navigating the changing fiscal and education policy environment while pursuing income diversification strategies, with a particular focus on the development of Western’s next four-year fiscal plan; and
- Raising Western’s visibility through media, communication, public affairs and events activities.