The strategic plan the outlines three strategic pillars for UPEI—Thriving People and Communities; Innovative and Connected Teaching, Research, and Scholarship; and Sustainability—as well as the commitments and goals for each pillar. Together, they form UPEI’s strategic direction for the next five years.

Strategic Pillar 1: Thriving People and Communities
Strategic Pillar 2: Innovative and Connected Teaching, Research, and Scholarship
Strategic Pillar 3: Sustainability

Strategic Pillar 1: Thriving People and Communities

Rationale: Our purpose as a university is to contribute to the development of our community members and society. The development of our people within inclusive and respectful learning and work environments will lead all our University initiatives.

Commitment: UPEI will foster an inclusive, healthy, collaborative, and supportive environment where our students, faculty, and staff can unlock their potential and contribute to their local and global communities. This includes: 

• Fostering a culture of safety, trust, and inclusion
• Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples
• Supporting and delivering enriched experiences and refined systems and processes for our students, faculty, and staff that enable them to explore and develop their abilities and contributions

Pillar 1 Goals

1. Fully implement the UPEI Action Plan: Building a Culture of Trust, Safety, and Inclusion
2. Ground EDI practices in integrity and consideration of our community members’ safety, well-being, and dignity
3. Ensure effective communications, information sharing, and connections within UPEI and our communities
4. Assess and address mental health supports and services
5. Support initiatives to build the overall health and well-being of our campus community 
6. Increase participation and support of Indigenous students, faculty, and staff

Strategic Pillar 2: Innovative and Connected Teaching, Research, and Scholarship

Rationale: UPEI’s size and scale allows us to reach across campus, disciplines, and service units to work together in unique ways. We will leverage our size, scale, and strengths to develop creative ways of connecting people and shared goals.

Commitment: Working together, we will make meaningful contributions to our world by fostering innovation and encouraging collaboration to address complex challenges by growing knowledge, ideas, and people. This includes:

• UPEI will be a model for collaboration
• We will increase connectivity and remove silos to better promote information sharing and team-focused approaches
• We will develop effective ways of sustainably connecting with provincial, national, and global sectors and communities to carry out our mission

Pillar 2 Goals

1. Encourage boundary-spanning activities and remove barriers to collaboration to enable multi-disciplinary research and scholarship of mutual benefit to community members
2. Increase internal entrepreneurship and innovation within institutional initiatives
3. Build innovative pedagogical and investigative approaches to improve teacher, researcher, and learner experiences and interactions
4. Establish UPEI as the regional leader in providing a dynamic and collaborative learning environment where students are actively involved in the learning process through engaged, process-oriented teaching
5. Promote the transfer and exchange of knowledge to amplify UPEI’s research impact
6. Develop external partnerships to pursue mutually beneficial community- and industry-engaged education, research, and service initiatives of impact
7. Develop Indigenous partnerships to better understand and value Indigenous knowledge in teaching and research

Pillar 3: Sustainability

Rationale: Meeting short-term needs in ways that protect and plan for the long-term health of our institution, partners, and communities is paramount. We are committed to sustainability in our operations and finances, managing our environmental footprint and impact, and contributing to the well-being of people and communities through a focus on social and cultural sustainability.

Commitment: UPEI will carry out its activities with a commitment to social, environmental, and financial sustainability. This includes:

• Improving institutional resilience and adaptiveness, while sustaining our core mission and values
• Studying and continuously improving our internal processes and fiscal stewardship to ensure the long-term sustainability of UPEI
• Contributing to our greater community through engaged programming that helps solve complex social challenges

Pillar 3 Goals

Become a leader in the developing and implementation of sustainable practices on campus by leveraging expertise in areas such as climate change, sustainable design, environmental science, and cleantech theory into everyday practices on campus 

1. Pursue opportunities to leverage University-developed initiatives into larger-scale community impacts in areas such as environmental stewardship, climate change, and cultural preservation
2. Create and support community-engaged research on sustainability threats and outcomes, including a focus on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
3. Enhance data analysis, data governance, and proactive, integrated planning to ensure readiness for challenges
4. Improve policies, processes, and workforce and institutional planning alignment to optimize decision making and resource allocation
5. Implement strategic enrolment management (SEM) to improve student recruitment, retention, and overall student success
6. Institute a multi-year operational plan and revenue strategy
7. Expand sustainability across curricula through program innovation, new forms of learning, and digital transformation