York University
2020-2025 UAP Priorities

Six Priorities for Action

York University has an enduring commitment to critical inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge that comes from many differing perspectives and ways of knowing. As a learning community, we believe in the power of research, scholarship, creativity, education, and dialogue to transform ourselves and the world around us for the better. We share a collective belief in the university as a public trust. 

Our new UAP is designed to uphold the fundamental values of the University, even as we evolve our roles and reach to ensure our graduates are equipped for a future that will be defined by dramatic change. 

• Climate and environmental change raise urgent questions for virtually every field of endeavour and a need to come up with innovative solutions.
• Digital inter-connectivity and physical mobility of people generate complexity but also immense possibilities to accelerate collaboration and problem solving.
• Technology is simultaneously enabling, enhancing, and disrupting every sphere of life and work, as well as revolutionizing how we all learn, think, and create. 
• Global power shifts translate into local tensions and inequities, highlighting the need for meaningful strategies to enhance international cooperation, economic inclusion, and social cohesion. 
• The ethical and moral imperatives of social movements—such as #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, among others—need to inform our policies and direction as an academic community and as a force for good in the world.

York University brings distinctive capabilities to the table to meet these challenges and uncover the opportunities that lie within them. This UAP positions York clearly as an agent of positive change for our students, for higher education, for society at large, and for the planet. We believe that at this juncture, to make a better future, the world needs more of York University.  

Each of the six Priorities focuses on a key dimension of positive change that York University will pursue over the next five years. The Priorities are conceptualized as a wheel to reflect their fluidity and interdependence. Each Priority depends upon the others to fully realize the UAP, just as we, the community of YorkU, depend upon each other to thrive. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals envelop the wheel to depict York’s longstanding commitment to building a more just and sustainable future and to indicate how we are challenging ourselves over the life of this Plan to elevate these contributions.