A warm welcome from Andrew Petter

Thank you for visiting Simon Fraser University online. It’s my pleasure to invite you to explore SFU in person or on the web. Either way, you will discover an exciting world of intellectual energy and creative opportunity. 

Student-centred, research-driven and community-engaged

SFU’s remarkable students, faculty and staff have distinguished this university with their outstanding commitment to our institutional values of discovery, diversity and dialogue.  In just four decades, SFU has earned an international reputation for innovative teaching, advanced research, competitive athletics and community engagement.  Our curriculum and admission requirements emphasize writing and quantitative skills, as well as breadth of study, for undergraduates. Our researchers have secured more than $84 million in sponsored funds, and SFU enjoys the highest research intensity and growth amongst comprehensive universities.  We provide a rich and rewarding environment for athletics and recreation.  And no university in Canada is as outward looking and as connected to the communities it serves.

Positioning SFU for the future

Recent changes to the structure of our faculties have enhanced SFU's ability to attract top students and outstanding faculty members in areas of increasing importance and demand.  In addition to faculties of Science, Arts and Social Sciences, Education, Business, and Health Sciences, the Faculty of Applied Sciences has been reorganized and two new faculties have been added.  A new Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology houses the School of Communication, Contemporary Arts; the School of Interactive Arts and Technology; and the Master of Publishing Program.  A new Faculty of Environment incorporates the Centre for Sustainable Community Development, the Department of Geography, the Environmental Science Program, Development Studies, and the School of Resource and Environmental Management.  The Faculty of Applied Sciences now consists of the School of Computing Science and the School of Engineering Science.  The School of Kinesiology has changed its name to the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, and is now part of the Faculty of Science.

SFU’s campuses have also seen remarkable transformations in recent years, with the addition of buildings key to SFU’s dynamic future.  The successful development of SFU’s Surrey campus is addressing regional inequalities in access to higher education and research, and will serve as the heart of an exciting new Surrey City Centre.  Four impressive new buildings on the Burnaby campus will support the research and teaching missions of the university.  And the exciting new Woodward’s facility joins the Segal Graduate School of Business, the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue and Harbour Centre as part of SFU Vancouver’s vibrant downtown campus -– the “intellectual heart” of downtown Vancouver. 

In the classroom, the laboratory and even in the international arena, SFU continually sets new standards of excellence.   We continue to develop strong international partnerships to better prepare our students to live and work in a global context. SFU is currently seeking formal accreditation from the Washington–based Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). On completion, SFU would become the first major Canadian post-secondary research institution to be accredited by one of the six regional accrediting bodies in the United States. An internationally recognized guarantee of institutional quality from the NWCCU will increase SFU’s profile abroad and ensure that it is attracting the very best international students.   

The best of all worlds

With three distinctive campuses, more than 940 permanent faculty members, and over 34,000 undergraduate and graduate students, SFU consistently ranks as one of Canada’s leading research-intensive comprehensive universities.  My goal as President is to build on these strengths to establish SFU as university that, through its combined commitments to teaching excellence, research intensity and community engagement, is recognized by its students, faculty, staff and the communities it serves as providing them with “the best of all worlds.”

Contact

We welcome your inquiries about Simon Fraser University.