Strategic Plan 2017–2022 | Strategic Plan | Seneca Polytechnic

Bringing great to the world

A strategic plan is both directional and aspirational. It charts a high-level course while setting longer-term goals that are navigational beacons on the horizon. At Seneca, students, employees and partners look to the Strategic Plan to understand our journey and for the context of decisions we make.

The plan must be firmly rooted in our enduring values. Those values are important touchstones providing consistency and continuity. However, the increasing pace of change is a reminder that as much as any plan attempts to anticipate and shape the future, we need to be flexible and responsive to adapt to our shifting environment.

For Seneca, operating in a time of intense competition, changing demographics, rapidly evolving technology and restrained government funding, the need to be nimble and innovative has never been greater.

Our core mission – providing a great education for our students – remains our lodestar. That has been fundamental to Seneca since we opened our doors in 1967. A Seneca education is a valuable combination of practical and sophisticated skills underpinned by theoretical knowledge. It is polytechnic education, enriched by technology-enabled learning.

As much as the high-quality professional and career-based training that we offer matters, our focus is equally on a broad-based education that will help our students navigate the dynamism, even uncertainty, of the future with confidence.

Today, a Seneca education is a global education. Reflecting the diversity of the greater Toronto region, joined by thousands of international students from 140 countries, Seneca’s students bring a global perspective to the classroom and the campus. Increasingly, our students and faculty are learning and teaching abroad.

By program’s end, our graduates are career-ready, stepping directly from the convocation stage into the world that awaits them. The Seneca graduate is prepared to be the fully participating citizen and, yes, the leader that our communities require whether around the corner or around the world. More than 190,000 Seneca alumni prove that every day. They bring great to the world.

The consultation process

The Strategic Plan, with the Academic Plan embedded in it, is the product of extensive internal and external consultation. Town halls were held at the four largest campuses for students as well as focus groups and meetings with student leaders and class visits. Employees had an opportunity to contribute either through one of more than 30 consultation sessions held across Seneca or online. More than 800 students and employees participated.

As well, the Aboriginal Education Council, chairs of the Program Advisory Committees, secondary school teachers and students, industry partners, thought leaders in education and government representatives shared their perspectives. Before approving the plan in June 2017, the Board of Governors held two strategic planning sessions both to hear the results of the consultations and to add their own perspective to the discussions.