Post-secondary institutions across the country are coming together from March 6-10 to mark the first SDG Week Canada. This national collaboration is organized by the Sustainability Hub at UBC, Colleges and Institutes Canada, and SDSN Canada, of which Queen’s is a member.

Germany’s ambassador to Canada visited campus recently, joining Queen’s University leaders, researchers, and students in wide-ranging discussions on international collaborations, research and funding, and knowledge sharing.

Queen’s is launching an online call for feedback on the draft Global Engagement Strategic Plan. Created to support the Queen’s Strategy,  the plan outlines six objectives to deepen the university’s global impact and ability to help shape a more just, equitable and sustainable society.

Recent strategic initiatives highlight impact of teaching and learning combined with research integration.

With the winter term underway, new teaching and learning initiatives are advancing goals emphasized in the Queen’s Strategy. By integrating research with student learning, and engaging the community in transformative educational experiences, teaching and learning for impact has become a vital part of Queen’s.

When Queen’s signed the Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education and committed to more meaningful, concrete actions to address anti-Black racism and to promote Black inclusion, the university devoted itself to a comprehensive and ongoing plan for transformation.

Many longstanding and meaningful partnerships and collaborations exist between Queen’s University and its community partners but as indicated in Queen’s Strategy, strengthening local, national, and global connections and establishing new ones is essential for addressing real-world challenges, achieving shared goals, and for enhancing student learning and impact.

Nine days have passed since a devastating earthquake and aftershocks brought suffering and destruction to parts of Türkiye and Syria. The magnitude of the disaster is very clear, but it remains difficult for many of us properly to absorb. Still more challenging is it to understand what action on our part is called for, what those of us remote from the immediate site can and should do to contribute to the relief effort.

I have written many times before that racism has no place on our campus, and while I fully believe that, it would be naïve to think it does not exist. Recent events have made that very clear.

Attending the 16th general conference of the International Association of Universities (IAU) in Dublin this October, I was pleased to accept on behalf of Queen’s a “Learning Badge” that confirmed the progress our university is making in its planning and strategy for internationalization. “Global engagement” is the term we prefer to use for this aspect of our work because it suggests a higher degree of intentionality and purposiveness – not mere acquiescence in a process driven by circumstance.