Navigating with Confidence.
Almost daily, headlines reveal how technological advancements and dramatic shifts in demographics and labour markets are reshaping how we live, work, learn and communicate.
While no one can fully predict all the disruptive forces or new possibilities that may emerge, we can – and must – prepare people to thrive in the face of constant change. That’s why Sheridan is codifying a bold plan of action, aimed at giving our graduates the skills, competencies and confidence to seize and shape an ever-changing world.
The newly launched Sheridan 2024: Galvanizing Education for a Complex World is a strategy to respond to the needs of the next decade, retain the best of 52 years of educational leadership, and re-imagine the evolution of Sheridan.
“Just as the world continues to change, so must we,” said John Fleming, Chair of the Board of Governors. “It embodies our principles and priorities and challenges Sheridan to be the epicentre for groundbreaking, standard-setting higher education.”
The plan was built collaboratively – through vigorous and passionate dialogue and debate, involving 3,000 voices from across Sheridan and its home communities of Oakville, Mississauga and Brampton.
“A Sheridan education will give learners discipline-specific skills – rooted in academic rigor – while fostering individual transformation by developing students’ capacity for agility, self-direction, calculated risk taking and imagination,” said Dr. Janet Morrison, President and Vice Chancellor of Sheridan.
The new plan will further the school’s renown for animation, film, game design and musical theatre – programs all based in Oakville. It will create even more imaginative opportunities for learning and training that fuse the worlds of work and study. The plan also compels Sheridan to foster social innovation and tackle the pressing challenges of our times – a task that can be achieved by contributing the expertise of our professors, students and alumni throughout the community in a way that’s grounded in reciprocity.
Areas of impact
Sheridan 2024 establishes goals centred around four areas of impact:
Exceptional teaching, research and creativity
Sheridan will assert its role as a trailblazer, strengthening its teaching excellence, research, innovation and exceptional creativity to prepare students and faculty to shape the future.
Among the key elements of realizing this goal: ensuring everyone has an individual development plan by 2024; scholarship and research that consistently roots professors in their fields; offering diverse options for work-integrated learning; seamless integration of smart technology; and forging a culture that cultivates curiosity, a passion for learning, perseverance, fun and sense of purpose.
Boundless opportunities
Sheridan will establish itself as the epicentre for a new kind of education that enables the most flexible opportunities for open-ended, seamless lifelong learning. A short-term objective is paving pathways for graduate programming, and advocating for master’s degrees with government.
Key elements to realizing this goal: creative approaches to structures and curriculum leading to Sheridan’s full suite of credentials – degrees, diplomas, apprenticeships, and certificates; a learnercentric approach that supports fluid pathways, improves access for diverse learners, and make transferable skills and knowledge more visible.
Agility and potential
Sheridan will be known for its signature palette of capabilities designed to foster lifelong learning, critical thinking, initiative, agility, collaboration, equity and creativity. It will guide learner-centric experiences that position everyone to effectively navigate an unpredictable future.
The keys to making this vision a reality: deep and broad opportunities to build capabilities for everyone at Sheridan; learner-centric student supports that enable people to access opportunities, make informed decisions and fulfil their individual potential; universal design and technology that are integrated into spaces and learning with the goal of full accessibility for all.
Reciprocal work-learn relationships Everyone at Sheridan – learners, faculty and staff – will continually build expertise, knowledge and experience through innovative work-learn possibilities. Sheridan will design and implement an engagement model with communities and employers locally and globally to cocreate new approaches for hands-on learning, strategic partnerships, and interdisciplinary innovation.
The key elements to achieving this vision: building Sheridan’s capacity as an anchor of research and workintegrated learning for local and global communities and employers so every employer can benefit from Sheridan expertise, students have a full array of learning opportunities, and faculty maintain connections to their fields.
Enabling the plan
Each actionable priority in Sheridan 2024 is underpinned by five empowering enablers – commitments that are the foundation of everything Sheridan does. They are:
- Inclusion and equity
Equity and inclusion will be intentionally and measurably embedded in everything and everyone at Sheridan to create a community where each individual knows their unique talent, experience and contributions are valued, and they can realize their full potential. That will be evident in internationalization, a learner experience that pays special attention to international, first-generation and students with disabilities, universal design, and the integration of the work of the Centre for Indigenous Learning and Support across Sheridan.
Sheridan is already a demonstrated leader in this realm, illustrated by its selection to participate in the Government of Canada’s Dimensions pilot project, which aims to identify and eliminate inequities related to research funding, participation and practices. - People-centric technology
A comprehensive technology strategy and investment in a range of interactive and intelligent technologies will enhance the student experience, along with the capacity of faculty and staff capacity to effectively carry out their work. Technology will be prioritized based on its ability to enable collaboration, learning, student experience, remote work, and effective administration. This approach is illustrated in Sheridan’s development of a new support model to help faculty design accessible, engaging and responsive learning experiences for students in class and online. - Flourishing workforce
A culture of innovative risk-taking, interdisciplinary collaboration, lifelong learning and flexible work environments will foster wellness and personal and professional fulfilment among Sheridan staff and faculty. That will include a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, and a cultivation of space and time for interdisciplinary learning, work and professional development. Sheridan will build on employee engagement and enrichment opportunities that include bringing thought leaders to campus and the Sheridan Reads series. - Healthy and creative communities
Thoughtful design of physical spaces and wellness practices will create healthy and vibrant communities on each campus that bolster creativity and innovation. Sheridan will complete a visionary campus master plan that prioritizes light, healthy food, movement, collaboration and reflective space, visible creativity, and connections to nature and adjacent communities.
The vibrancy of Sheridan’s campus is evident in the Screen Industries and Research Training Centre, a partnership with the Canadian Opera Company and National Ballet of Canada. Its Digital Stage project is exploring the boundless possibilities offered by technologies in the performing arts. - Fiscal and environmental sustainability
Sheridan will seek novel approaches long-term sustainability, funding options and partnerships, and reinforce its leadership in green campus initiatives. That includes launching a transparent, incentivebased approach to budgeting, generating diverse revenue streams, strengthening governance and financial stewardship, and expanding 2024 Mission Zero environmental goals.
Sheridan’s approach to sustainability comes to life in district energy networks at the Brampton and Oakville campuses that offer students hands-on exposure to global best practice, and supports collaboration with municipal government in establishing roadmaps to cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Sheridan is bringing together excellent teaching, connectivity to the workforce, interdisciplinary creativity and innovation, personal development, academic strength/ integrity, and applied research and knowledge. It’s an innovation space that tends to the development of the person as much as to the currency of knowledge and workplace preparedness.
This space is neither college, polytechnic, nor university. It’s a new, composite and visionary form of higher education. It’s ground-breaking and it is Sheridan.
To learn more please visit sheridan2024.sheridancollege.ca
