GOVERNING DOCUMENTS: GOVERNANCE


MISSION STATEMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

"To create, preserve and communicate knowledge and thereby contribute to the cultural, social and economic well-being of the people of Manitoba, Canada and the world."

Approved by the Board of Governors 7 July 1993.

Goals

In fulfilling its mission the University of Manitoba seeks to:

  • provide the highest possible quality of undergraduate and graduate university teaching in the humanities, social sciences, natural and applied sciences, the fine and performing arts and the professions;
  • enhance student success by fostering an environment conducive to intellectual and personal growth;
  • conduct original scholarship and basic and applied research, and produce creative works of highest quality as judged by international standards;
  • serve the community directly by making its expertise available to individuals and institutions, and by providing as much access to the University's intellectual, cultural, artistic and physical resources as its primary teaching and research responsibilities permit;
  • preserve and protect academic freedom and intellectual independence, and provide a forum for critical inquiry and debate; and
  • promote equity in access and employment and in the conduct of the University's affairs.

Approved by the Board of Governors 22 June 1993

The core identity of the University of Manitoba has changed over its 121 years of existence. By affirming the value of the classical curriculum taught in the affiliated Colleges, by appointing instructors in the natural sciences as its first teaching professors, by incorporating professional colleges such as Medicine, Pharmacy and Agriculture, and by adopting many other changes, both large and small, the University became a North American "multiversity". The multiversities are the research universities of Canada and the United States - pluralistic institutions that draw on philosophic traditions and practices that emphasize undergraduate education in the liberal arts, research and graduate training in all areas but especially in the applied and basic sciences, and serve society by providing the opportunity for higher education to all who are qualified, not just to an elite socioeconomic class as universities did in the past (Kerr, 1995).

Multiple foci of activity and interest in a university are manifestations of internal complexity and differing philosophies about the purpose of the university, and yet this diversity is no obstacle to the formation of university identity. Every Canadian university can identify its purpose and define the principles that guide it in achieving its mission, although latterly it has been desirable to do so explicitly rather than implicitly. The University of Manitoba followed the same trend as its sister universities across the nation in this regard.

In Plan 2000, the University articulated its purpose formally, a purpose to which it has subscribed throughout its long history. In 1995 the Board of Governors approved the mission statement, thereby demonstrating constancy and commitment to the purpose of this institution: To create, preserve and communicate knowledge, and thereby, contribute to the cultural, social and economic well-being of the people of Manitoba, Canada and the world.