Welcome to Graduate Studies at SFU!

I respectfully acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen peoples on whose unceded traditional territories SFU’s three campuses reside. 

As vice-provost and dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, I am pleased to welcome you to the 2026–2027 academic year!

We are currently living in times of rapid and unprecedented change. As a society, we are struggling to respond to new technologies, climate change, and shifts in international relations, to name just a few of the key issues. As “a leading research university, advancing an inclusive and sustainable future”, SFU offers a research-informed approach to graduate education, providing students with the knowledge and skills they need to address society’s most pressing issues. Whether they are in labs, in classrooms, in communities, or on the land, SFU’s graduate students are asking difficult questions, considering various approaches to making sense of the relevant data, creating new knowledge, and responding in ways that have a real impact. They ensure that SFU remains a leader in teaching and research. I’d encourage you to learn about some of the groundbreaking work being carried out by SFU graduate students.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) is the central hub for graduate students, faculty and staff at SFU. We support the university’s 42 graduate academic units, 150+ graduate programs, and 4,200 graduate students throughout their journeys from application to convocation and beyond. This includes ensuring alignment with degree requirements, distributing scholarships and awards, providing academic guidance, and offering valuable career supports. We also offer workshops and other resources to academic supervisors, who provide outstanding mentorship to our students.

This past year has represented an exciting time in the Faculty of Graduate Studies at SFU. Our new collegial governance body, the Faculty of Graduate Studies Assembly, met for its first full year. This group, which includes faculty representatives from each academic unit along with staff and students, focused especially on advancing discussions around how we as a community might make explicit what is currently implicit in graduate education. The result is a fully revised set of Graduate General Regulations, recommendations for how to advance inclusive excellence, and a set of enhanced supports for the student-supervisor relationship. As we move into the new academic year, we will continue to focus on increasing transparency in graduate studies. This includes discussions around graduate learning outcomes and the launch of a new graduate progress report. FGS will also take part in its first ever external review.

If you’re interested in knowing more about what we are doing in FGS, I’d invite you to take a look at our strategic plan, which we update regularly. We strive to improve systems, curricula, and supervisory support for SFU’s world-class faculty and staff while enhancing the graduate student experience. We do all of this with an eye toward achieving our vision “to be the hub of support for inclusive excellence and equity in graduate education and research” as well as our mission to “honour each person's unique gifts as they pursue and share new skills and knowledge.” 

As I begin my fourth year in this role, I’m pleased to express my gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the extensive and positive progress we’ve already made. I look forward to what we can achieve together in the next year!

It is an honour to work alongside SFU’s graduate program staff and faculty, students and supervisors, along with members of the broader community. I appreciate your feedback on the work we’re doing as well as your ideas for how we might do things differently. You can share this with us by emailing gradstudies@sfu.ca.