We are powered by imagination, gain strength from the community, and are motivated by our goal: a distinctive, empowering university experience for students. Learn more about Capilano University's plan for the next decade.
Our Vision
Illuminating 2030 is Capilano University’s 10-year Academic Plan.
Capilano University transforms the lives of learners, employees and communities with experiences and engagement opportunities to actualize their passion and potential.
We are a dynamic and accountable place of thought and action that inspires imagination, prioritizes health and well-being and positively contributes to people and the planet.
Purpose
Anchored in Envisioning 2030’s core themes – community, imagination, distinct university experience, and health and well-being, the Academic Plan articulates our evolving commitments to learners, communities, knowledge development and knowledge sharing.
The plan is both aspirational and concrete in support of advancing our core activity: transformative academic programming and learning opportunities. It also serves to inform decision making and resource allocation as they relate to academic programming, teaching and learning, and enhanced creative activity, research and scholarship.
Community
As an inquiry-based learning community, we co-create possible approaches and solutions in response to local and global concerns, questions and challenges in collaboration with campus and community partners.
Inspired by imagination and grounded in people and place, we thrive in the intersections and possibilities that lie between land and sea, forest and city, urban and rural, theory and application, learning and making, knowledge and action, learners and communities.
Our community-engaged learning, teaching, creative activity, research and scholarship take place throughout British Columbia’s Howe Sound region and beyond.
- Develop an academic action plan from the educational priorities and requirements of territorial rights holders to advance Indigenization, options for Indigenous learners and communities, and further reconciliation.
- Seek direction and guidance from the Squamish Nation on our responsibilities to Skw'cháys and translate these responsibilities into teaching, learning and scholarship.
- Establish a centre of experiential and work-integrated learning opportunities for all students, and link with faculty creative activity, research and scholarship.
- Expand CapU’s partnerships with regional municipalities and districts, businesses and industries, not-for-profit and community organizations, and other interested partners aligned with University values.
- Develop local academic action plans for the Sunshine Coast and Sea-to-Sky corridor in collaboration with the region's local governments, leaders and sector organizations.
- Renew and deepen the role of advisory committees, including student and alumni voices, in the ongoing evolution of our academic programs and learning opportunities.
- Deepen and expand scholarly, research and creative collaborations with local and global educational partners for mutually beneficial community-engaged learning and research opportunities.
Imagination
Through the creativity and ingenuity of learners, the University community, and external partners, we collaborate to address the pressing issues of our time and to imagine new futures through established and emerging bodies of knowledge.
The thoughtful adoption of land- and place-based learning practices will inform academic programming, learning opportunities, creative activity, research, and scholarship in the decade ahead.
Drawing on the diverse bodies of knowledge and skills embedded across the University and attending to potential regional applications, we will participate in imagining and co-creating a more equitable and sustainable future for all people and the planet.
- Create and support a range of ongoing opportunities for learning under the leadership of the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE), the Office of Creative Activity, Research & Scholarship (CARS) and the Office of Indigenous Education & Affairs (IEA).
- Include academic and community partners in the design and redesign of academic credentials and community-engaged flexible and imaginative learning experiences.
- Contribute to the global open education movement through open knowledge mobilization initiatives involving the Faculties, CARS, CTE, IEA and the University Library.
- Prioritize the continued use and adoption of digital and educational technologies to advance excellence in teaching and learning and strengthen tools and platforms required for collaboration, curating and sharing evidence of learning.
- Embed opportunities to scaffold creative and community-based activity, research and scholarship within all degree programs.
- Develop and put into action a comprehensive approach to hiring, mentoring and coaching of faculty, academic leadership and academic staff.
Distinct university experience
Alongside the University community as a whole, learners will be invited to engage as emerging knowledge mobilizers and makers.
In order to contribute as a university in an era of profound societal, cultural and global challenges and opportunities, we are dedicated to renewal and reinvention.
Our social and environmental responsibilities extend to a climate in crisis, reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, honouring diversity, addressing inequities, and thriving amid rapid technological change and disruption.
- Renew CapU learning outcomes for alignment with the Academic Plan 2030.
- Review and, as required, renew Cap Core, the University’s general education framework, for alignment with the Academic Plan 2030.
- Identify, develop and implement governance and operational requirements for the delivery of graduate-level credentials.
- Create and implement a post-pandemic framework for online learning (based on a purposeful learning and learner-centred approach) that is reflective of leading practices.
- Harness the University's quality assurance activities, including assessment of learning and program review, and faculty-based strategic planning committees, to strengthen and infuse academic programs with the learning opportunities and priorities set out in the Academic Plan 2030.
- Prioritize the development of flexible academic programs with options for individualized pathways by incorporating minors, certificates and micro-credentials in addition to students’ primary areas of study.