Our Strategic Framework

Acadia University's Global Learning Office aims to empower post-secondary students to participate in international learning opportunities both at home and abroad. The Global Learning Office is growing its operations and will offer academic, work-integrated, and co-curricular learning opportunities to Acadia students and students from our partner institutions. The Global Learning Office supports Acadia's diversity, innovation capacity, and global ties, while preparing students with skills needed for work, learning, and life.

OUR VISION

Acadia University is the top choice for students seeking a transformative university experience dedicated to unleashing their potential to prepare them for a transforming world.

OUR MISSION

Acadia University provides an unparalleled learning experience through a liberal education model based on personalized attention, expanding the boundaries of knowledge, experiential learning, community engagement, environmental stewardship and global citizenship, and engaged research and innovation delivered by a passionate, dedicated, and nurturing community both within the Acadia campus and abroad with our esteemed international partners.

OUR VALUES

Acadia’s values help define who we are, our expectations for students and international partners, and guide our aspirations for the future. They provide the foundation of our strategic plan.

  • Caring for our students
  • Educating the whole person
  • Critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, resilience, entrepreneurial spirit, and technological competence
  • Global citizenship and responsibility
  • Passionate community engagement
  • Diversity, inclusivity, equity, and respect
  • Excellence in academic, research, scholarly, professional, and personal achievement
  • Environmental stewardship and sustainability
  • Truth and reconciliation with indigenous peoples
  • Social justice, human rights, the common good
  • Engaged partnerships and outreach for development
  • Authentic relationships with community, alumni, and partners
  • Responsible management and allocation of resources

OUR PILLARS

GLOBAL LINKS
REDUCED BARRIERS
SKILL DEVELOPMENT
INSTITUTIONAL EQUITY
ENHANCED INNOVATION
Students with international study and work experience bring global-mindedness and a fresh perspective to their classrooms, campuses, and communities.

Acadia is committed to integrating IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) into all aspects of the global learning experience and improving our services to reduce and remove barriers to ensure equitable access to educational opportunities and resources. We recognize that every student's needs are unique, and we are dedicated to providing individualized support to facilitate full and active participation in global learning opportunities.

Acadia’s approach of educating the whole person has never been more relevant than it is in today’s rapidly changing society, where an increasingly complex combination of skills, knowledge and capabilities are required in order to succeed and thrive.

Partnerships are at the heart of our work; we aim to foster long-term equitable partnerships that are jointly developed with shared values and objectives. We are committed to ensuring a consistent and transparent approach to our institutional partnerships, developed to support Acadia's Strategic plan. We celebrate each of our partners' unique contributions to our university and the core principles at the centre of our partnerships, including reciprocity, respect, trust, and sustainability.

 Mutually beneficial partnerships and collaboration to explore innovative approaches with more diverse engagement in international learning opportunities.

OUR DIRECTION AND GOALS

Caring for our students, employees, and partners

Caring for our planet

Revitalizing our
academic core

Maximizing our
impact regionally
and globally

Sustaining our
institutional future

Goals:

  • Transformational student
    experiences focused on
    academic, personal, and professional development
  • An inclusive and supportive
    community culture
  • A campus & partnership culture passionate about professionalism, inclusion, service excellence, and leadership
  • Caring for our community’s safety, health, and wellness
  • Msit No’kmaq - advancing Acadia’s contributions to truth, reconciliation and decolonization locally and abroad

Goals:

  • The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are signature guiding principals of Acadia's Global Learning Program
  • Engage students, staff, faculty, and partners in measurable environmental stewardship and sustainability initiatives that work towards Acadia achieving net carbon neutrality

Goals:

  • Provide global learning opportunities that embrace a 21st century liberal education model that is central to Acadia’s
    vision and mission
  • Enhanced support for curricular and co-curricular teaching and learning excellence that prioritizes an interwoven approach of indigenisation and internationalisation

Goals:

  • Mutually beneficial partnerships and collaboration to drive
    development, research,
    and educational
    opportunities, with a strong focus on non-traditional countries (countries other than France, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States)
  • A Two-Eyed Seeing approach and leadership in environmental, rural and coastal research and innovation
  • Acadia’s Global Learning Program is impactful regionally, nationally and globally

Goals:

  • Acadia's Global Learning Program is a core asset to the university's differentiation within the Canadian post-secondary landscape, and is recognized as a key recruitment and retention service.
  • Embed Acadia's Global Learning Program systematically into the university's operations
  • Achieve optimal rates of student participation, especially underrepresented students, across all academic disciplines, to ensure equitable global learning opportunities that support institutional and partnership sustainability
  • Establish a culture of sustained funding and giving
  • Enhanced wrap-around supports and services to meet priority needs