Speaker series
The university invited a diverse group of thought-leaders from Canada and the U.S. as part of a speaker series, The Future of the University and the Future of Learning. Their insights and know-helped to inform the nine directions that were developed.
Michael Crow
How do we design the university that we want and need?
April 28, 2015
Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University since July 1, 2002, gave a presentation on how to design the university that we want and need.
Ted Hewitt and Rémi Quirion
How will university-based research be transformed in the next decade?
April 27, 2015
Ted Hewitt, president of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and Rémi Quirion, Quebec Chief Scientist, addressed the ways university-based research would be transformed in the next decade.
Taiaiake Alfred
What can universities do to support indigenous resurgence?
April 22, 2015
Taiaiake Alfred, Full Professor, Indigenous Governance and Political Science, University of Victoria and Kahnawake Mohawk Author and Educator, talked about ways for universities to support Indigenous resurgence.
Duane Elverum and Janet Moore
How can community-university partnerships reinvent the city and the classroom?
April 16, 2015
Duane Elverum and Janet Moore, co-founders and co-directors of CityStudio, Vancouver, described how community-university partnerships can re-invent the city and the classroom.
Alain Beaudet and B. Mario Pinto
How will university-based research be transformed in the next decade?
April 14, 2015
Alain Beaudet and B. Mario Pinto discussed how university-based research would be transformed in the next decade.
Iain Klugman
How can universities foster start-ups that help solve global challenges?
April 10, 2015
Drawing from his role as CEO of Communitech, Ian Klugman explained how universities can foster startups that help solve global challenges.
Debra Stewart
What's a future-ready model of graduate education?
April 8, 2015
Debra Stewart offered perspective and insight to the discussion of how to create compelling and distinctive opportunities for graduate study.
Amy Collier
How can universities build learning environments that are both digital and connected?
April 2, 2015
Amy Collier explained that universities have an important role to play in helping learners make meaningful connections—between courses, with other students, and to the world outside the classroom.
James Neal
What fundamental shifts do next-generation libraries (and universities) need to make?
April 1, 2015
James Neal has identified four fundamental shifts in library collection development, which resonate well beyond library collections: primal innovation, deconstruction, radical collaboration, and survival.
David Orr
How should universities prepare students for the (hotter) world?
March 26, 2015
For more than three decades, David Orr has been a leading voice in the environmental movement, eloquently championing ecological literacy and sustainable design. In his presentation, Orr addressed the challenges that students graduating from university will face in a world affected by climate change and environmental degradation.
Stephen Huddart
How can universities help build thriving, innovative cities?
March 23, 2015
The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation funds and catalyzes work aimed at creating a more just, sustainable, and beautiful world, and it sees universities as key partners. Huddart says where you see cities thriving, it is more than likely that universities are playing an active role in making this happen.
Elizabeth Cannon
How can universities go from good to great?
March 10, 2015
Elizabeth Cannon has been president of the University of Calgary since July 2010. Under her leadership, the university has set the goal of moving up the ranks of Canada’s top research universities by 2016. They’re succeeding, and there are some good reasons why. During her visit to Concordia, Cannon shared some (though not maybe all) of know-how behind Calgary’s ambitious ascent.
Carl Amrhein and Diana Mackay
What will future students want and need from the universities?
March 4, 2015
In their work at the Conference Board of Canada, Amrhein and MacKay help academic leaders “rethink universities” with a particular focus on student interests and pathways. Around the world, postsecondary institutions are dramatically reforming how they prepare students for work, leverage digital learning technologies, and integrate with their communities. Canadian universities should take note.
Randy Bass
What is next-generation learning?
February 5, 2015
In Bass’s view, our understanding of learning has far outpaced our practices of teaching, which compels universities to confront their standard ways of organizing students’ educational experiences. Bass is currently leading a visioning process at Georgetown University focused on how to design a whole-person education for the digital age.
David Ward
Why should universities innovate?
January 28, 2015
From his perspective as former university president and former leader of the U.S.’s preeminent advocacy organization for higher education, David Ward sees a global anxiety about universities. Historical models focused on broad access, low cost, and uniform experience are being tested, and innovations in design and delivery of student learning experiences are proliferating. The key question, Ward asserts, is how we do provide a 21st-century university education given today’s tools and capabilities, and given the different needs and expectations of students?
