Simon Fraser University seeks to support local environment and culture through research and collaboration
As international communities face pressing challenges brought about by climate change and economic crises, universities find themselves at the centre of efforts to develop and implement positive solutions both locally and globally.
For the fourth instalment of the second season of Beyond Boundaries, an interview series produced by City University of Hong Kong (CityU), university president Way Kuo met with Joy Johnson, president and vice-chancellor of Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada, to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities facing higher education in the region.
CityU is an international university that emphasises the integration of research and teaching. The university has a strong focus on diversity through cross-cultural studies, and in making Beyond Boundaries it was Kuo’s ambition to further explore this theme with fellow education leaders from around the world.
Founded in 1965, SFU is a young institution with around 35,000 students spread across three campuses, in Vancouver, Surrey and Burnaby.
The university is noted for its world-class research and education in business, human-computer interaction and computer sciences. It was also founded under the principle of prioritising community engagement, leading on projects that include construction of local infrastructure, collaborative cultural programmes, environmental protection and improvement of native communities’ living conditions.
“Being an engaged university is about working with the community,” Johnson told Kuo. “It’s also about providing opportunities for our students in learning, [for instance] through co-op programmes and work-integrated learning, so that they’re learning in the classroom but also in the community.”
SFU has also developed a 2020-25 sustainability plan with 16 specific targets, including a 50 per cent reduction in operational greenhouse gas emissions across the university. The university also comes out top in terms of the federal funding it receives, Kuo noted, asking: “How did you accomplish that for such a young university?”
Johnson said that developing a strategic research plan had helped to secure funding and “identify areas we really wanted to work in and to provide particular support for”. One example, she said, was “big data – thinking about how data analytics can be used in all sorts of areas to solve pressing problems”.
The university still experiences funding challenges, however, and Johnson noted that fundraising efforts were increasingly vital, particularly since the pandemic.
Collaborating with industry partners is also a priority for SFU going forward, Johnson added, “looking at new technologies and thinking about ways that we can apply them to help our economies grow”.
The green-energy sector is one example of industry partnerships supporting local economies, and SFU has “a number of deep relationships with corporations in the area of hydrogen fuel cell technology”.
Going forward, SFU will seek to expand its diversity and inclusion programmes in line with growing student enrolment numbers, something Johnson said would be needed “to meet the needs of a changing economy”.
Kuo reflected that universities are well positioned “to direct the community [and] give them a vision of what’s next”.
“I do believe that we are growing the leaders of tomorrow,” Johnson concluded.
Find out more about CityU’s Beyond Boundaries series.
