Academic Plan 2025-2029
Strategic Plan
In an era where information is both a potent tool and a potential threat, our role as educators, researchers, and practitioners in the information field has never been more critical. We stand at the intersection of evolving technologies, pressing global issues, and the fundamental human need to understand and interact with our world.
Through extensive consultation and engagement with all our different communities, the Faculty of Information is proud to launch a strategic plan designed to make the most of our unique position. This plan calls for us to creatively address humanity’s greatest challenges by unlocking the power of information.
Explore the full plan and our three transformative initiatives—the revitalization of the Bissell Building, the reconstitution of the iSchool Institute, and the launch of our Direct-Entry Bachelor of Information program—by clicking the link below.
Here’s Why Information Matters Now:
Climate Change
Climate change threatens every living being on our planet. Humanity’s ability to confront climate change, make responsible decisions about it, mitigate its effects, prepare for imminent weather events, and adapt to a changing environment depend on information.
Pervasive Technology
Properly designed and managed, technology can unlock the power of information to address challenges; conversely, it can be used to weaponize misinformation for personal or political gain, enable surveillance and the invasion of privacy, and manipulate human behaviour.
Mass Migration
Mass migration will continue to increase in the coming decades, due to a confluence of factors including climate change. Humanity’s ability to organize such movement, rather than merely resist it, depends on information.
Systemic Inequity
Systemic inequity maintains itself through asymmetries of information. Information can be used ethically or unethically, in ways that help advance social good or act to suppress different social, economic, cultural, gender, LGBTQIA+, and other groups.
Our Plan for the Future
To advance our Mission, in the next five years the Faculty of Information will focus on Building Bridges, Practising Impact, and Fostering Leadership
- Building Bridges: Collaboration across disciplines, domains, and borders
- Practising Impact: Applied expertise to meet real-world challenges
- Fostering Leadership: Support for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and our institution to engender leadership
Building Bridges
Information is a bridge. It allows knowledge from one domain to enrich another. To grow our scholars’ impact and catalyze solutions to complex global challenges, the Faculty of Information will lead collaborations across disciplines, institutions, diverse communities, and borders.
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Practising Impact
Information is a discipline. It combines theory with practical expertise. To ensure our graduates have the professional skills they need and enhance our ability to make an impact, the Faculty of Information will guarantee its programs include applied skills and advance research and scholarship that equitably address real world challenges.
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Fostering Leadership
Information is changing. It requires leadership, grounded in humanistic values, to flourish. To increase opportunities for our faculty and students to make an impact around the world, the Faculty of Information will support our faculty, students, staff, and alumni to engender leadership.
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