McMaster students, faculty and staff met with President Patrick Deane and Provost David Wilkinson in October and November to discuss what sets McMaster apart from other Ontario post-secondary institutions.

Two open forums, held November 5 and 25, followed an online chat with students on October 29, as part of a process to gather feedback from the campus community on the University’s Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA).

In the coming months, postsecondary institutions in Ontario will be required by the provincial government to prepare an updated SMA, a vision document that articulates a broad mandate and identifies the institution’s distinctive strengths and aspirations. One of a series of initiatives by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, the SMA process is intended to “achieve significant improvements in productivity, quality and affordability  through both innovation and differentiation,” according to the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.

As part of McMaster’s SMA process, students, faculty and staff were invited to share ideas and offer feedback about the vision, objectives and priorities of the University. The forums provided an opportunity to hear from the president and the provost about this mandatory government process and to discuss McMaster’s long-term goals, its distinctive characteristics, and the challenges and opportunities of the present funding climate.

The forums covered a wide range of topics, from the changing landscape of government funding, to McMaster’s strengths as a research-intensive university, to the question of how to establish metrics that can measure the quality of teaching and learning.