Three years ago the province instituted a process whereby each university signs a Strategic Mandate Agreement (SMA) that outlines the strengths and commitments of each institution over a 3 year period.  Our first SMA agreement expires at the end of this academic year and we are about to embark on a negotiation with the ministry for SMA 2 which will cover the period 2017-2020.

The President and I invite all members of the McMaster community to attend an open forum to hear your input into the areas you feel we should prioritize in this document.  In order to assist members of the community to prepare for this discussion we will post relevant documents to the Provost’s web site as they become available.  The purpose of this message is to inform you that this forum will be held on Thursday February 16^th from 2pm-3:30pm in Convocation Hall.

 The details of the SMA 2 proposal document have yet to be finalized by the ministry however some elements are now clear.  These include the following:

• An agreement on the enrolment corridor for the university under the new funding formula; including a cap on graduate enrolments. 
• Updating the strategic areas of program strength and of program growth from SMA 1
• Outlining Institutional initiatives under five themes (as defined by the province) including the development of appropriate metrics and milestones
  • Student experience
  • Innovation in teaching and learning experience
  • Access and equity
  • Research excellence and impact
  • Innovation, economic development and community engagement

David Wilkinson, Provost and Vice-President (Academic)