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Marketing + Recruitment

SFU Branding for Graduate Studies

We've worked with consultants and with SFU Branding guidelines to create some templates, headlines, and copy that you can use to create marketing and recruitment tools for your academic units. We aim to:

  • create consistency for branding graduate programs at SFU in line with the larger SFU brand guidelines
  • provide some tools and templates to support academic units in their recruitment and marketing activities

Defining Graduate Studies and our Branding

A collaborative research community that leads change in society

SFU Graduate Studies is a collaborative environment for those who share a desire to create impact, celebrate new ideas and grow communities.

Graduate students are supported to test the boundaries of research, and put their ideas into action in a culture that values diverse international perspectives, close mentorship, and active learning.

When graduate students join our community of world-class researchers, they help to realize SFU as a place where engagement and knowledge leads to transformation within individuals and society.

What does it mean to be a part of graduate studies at SFU?

  • We are critical thinkers, passionate problem solvers and changemakers.
    Our research-driven environment is infused with diverse perspectives, collaboration and evolving approaches to create and mobilize knowledge.
  • We inspire world-changing ideas through collaboration and active learning.
    Graduate students receive close mentorship and the opportunity to pursue research within and across disciplines. They leave ready to bring new perspectives to their fields and lead change along the path they choose.
  • We are integrated within communities, locally and around the globe.
    From classrooms across three campuses, to communities at home and around the world, we engage with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge and further our contribution to society.
  • Graduate students collaborate with world-class faculty who are invested in their success.
    Innovative research and system-changing ideas are driven forward by graduate students who join and are mentored by a dedicated community of faculty, supervisors and peers.
  • We generate research that has academic, social and personal value.
    Graduate students engage with a diverse local and global network of people and organizations to advance knowledge, celebrate new ideas and help create the world our communities desire.
  • We contribute to the world with purpose, impact and relevance.
    Our culture creates space for graduate students to explore, test limits and take risks through intensive research, active learning and community engagement.
  • We believe in the potential of people and knowledge to lead change and influence society.
    Together, our communities create and mobilize knowledge that has an impact on global economic, environmental and social issues.

About Graduate Studies at SFU

We are Canada’s engaged university:

  • Community engagement is a core value and is part of our academic experience in all faculties.
  • We have a graduate community of 5,000 who build strong relationships and sense of community outside of the lab and the classroom.

We are a diverse, international research community

  • 36% of graduate students are international
  • SFU has an international footprint of partnerships with 2947 institutions worldwide, in 125 countries.

Learn more

Delivering academic and research excellence

Research and academic impact data and rankings
Click to learn more ↓
  • In Maclean's Rankings, SFU has been ranked 1st every year in the Comprehensive University category, with the exception of 2014, when it was ranked 2nd.
  • SFU students received more international and national student awards than any other comprehensive university in Canada. (Maclean's magazine 2021)
  • SFU is included in the top 10 or most innovative schools in Canada (Canada national reputation ranking, Maclean's magazine 2021)
  • SFU is ranked in the top 10 across ALL universities in Canada (Canada national reputation ranking, Maclean's magazine 2021)
  • Simon Fraser University is the number one innovative university in Canada.
  • SFU is above the national average in terms of graduate student scholarship funding success rates.
  • The Times Higer Education Impact Rankings 2020 places SFU as #1 worldwide for impact on sustainable cities and communities.
  • SFU ranks as one of Canada’s top universities for producing innovative research that makes an impact in the real world.
  • Our sponsored research income has grown by 86% over the past 10 years, reaching $167.3M in 2020.
  • SFU is consistently ranked among Canada’s top 15 research universities; and is noted for the high rate of medical science research grants, and research citations.
  • SFU researchers publish 2,500 journal articles per year, over 40% of which appear in the world's top 10% journals (Source: Scopus)
  • 43 Research Centres and 23 Research Institutes
  • The 2018 Times Higher Education Best Golden Age Universities ranks SFU 34th in the world and 3rd in Canada.
  • SFU ranks 13th in Canada in the latest QS World University Rankings, ranking 8th in Canada for citations per faculty. SFU consistently ranks in the top 200 worldwide for research impact.
  • In its 2020 World University Rankings, Times Higher Education ranks SFU tied for 11th in Canada.
  • The 2019 CWTS Leiden Ranking ranks SFU 4th among Canadian universities for percentage of international collaborative publications.
  • The 2019 U.S. News Global Rankings places SFU in the 12th spot in Canada, based on its research output, impact, and reputation, supplied by Web of Science data. The rankings also places SFU among the top 10 universities in Canada in 6 subject areas.

SFU Research Performance