Introducing our 2024-2030 Strategic Plan

Dear Community Members,

I’m pleased to share the launch of our 2024-2030 Strategic Plan, a forward-looking framework that will shape our next chapter at Emily Carr University. Rooted in our commitment to creativity, critical thinking, and a sense of responsibility through art and design, this plan ensures that these values remain at the core of everything we do.

This plan was co-created with our community. Through an inclusive engagement process, we listened to the hopes and ambitions of over 400 students, faculty, staff, and alumni, ensuring the strategic plan reflects the diverse voices of ECU. The result is a framework that balances vision and practicality, designed to inspire while being implementable and measurable over time. It reflects new commitments dedicated to leading through practice, innovating through collaboration, learning with curiosity and relating with care.

At the heart of our 2024-2030 Strategic Plan are five key priorities that will shape our path forward:

1. Elevating Teaching + Learning
2. Expanding Research + Practice
3. Supporting People + Culture
4. Stewarding Places + Spaces
5. Strengthening Systems + Supports

Over the next few months, unit leaders will begin mapping out operational plans in support of this work. In the meantime, I invite you to read our strategic plan in full to gain a deeper understanding of our objectives and the impact we aim to achieve.

→ Read our Strategic Plan Report

→ Visit our Strategic Plan Webpage

Looking ahead, 2025 will mark ECU’s 100th anniversary—an exciting milestone and an opportunity to reflect on our shared history and the remarkable contributions of alumni, students, faculty and staff. As we prepare to celebrate our centennial year, I am reminded that ECU has always been at the heart of Vancouver’s creative and cultural evolution. Today, our campus sits within the rapidly expanding Great Northern Way area, where we will play a vital role in shaping the future of this vibrant community. Our strategic plan will be essential to this ongoing transformation, ensuring that ECU continues to inspire and lead, both locally and globally, in art and design education.

Whether you are a student, faculty member, staff member, or alumni, your contributions and perspectives have been—and will continue to be—vital to this journey. Together, we will shape the future of ECU and build a better world through art and design.

Sincerely,

Dr. Trish Kelly
President + Vice-Chancellor