Vision, Mission, Values

Our goal is to offer Canada’s foremost undergraduate education.  

In 1843, the founders of Bishop’s University declared their intention “to offer to the country at large the blessing of a sound and liberal education”.  Today, our primary focus remains the liberal education of undergraduate students. 

We aspire to be the institution of choice for outstanding young people seeking academic excellence and a comprehensive undergraduate experience in a community that instils confidence, courage and a sense of responsibility in its students. 

At the heart of the Bishop’s experience is close interaction between professors and students, within the classroom and elsewhere, in research, scholarship and creative activity.  

We seek to engage our students in their own intellectual and social development by offering programs of study and extracurricular activities that foster intellectual curiosity and a life-long commitment to learning.

As a learning community, we are engaged in the advancement and dissemination of knowledge.  We encourage both breadth and depth in our students’ academic programs, to equip them to explore and solve complex problems.  

We are committed to maintaining our intimate size and residential nature in order to foster the social development of our students, encourage the creation of lasting friendships and engender a true sense of community.

We invite our students, who come from Quebec, elsewhere in Canada, and around the world, to practice the respectful and informed dialogue that sustains democracy, to exercise the rights and responsibilities of good citizenship and to realize their potential for leadership. 

We encourage our students to engage with individuals from different social, cultural and linguistic backgrounds and to take advantage of opportunities to open themselves to the world.  

We value our welcoming and inclusive community, which fosters deep engagement in the life of the University and the exceptional dedication of our alumni.  

We value individual integrity, mutual respect and collegiality.  

We value the self-reliance, ethical engagement and accountability that are essential to responsible leadership.  

We value service to our local and global communities, and research and scholarship that contribute to their growth and betterment.  

We value the curiosity, creativity and innovation that lie at the core of the intellectual endeavour:  the search for truth and the discovery and transmission of knowledge in research and scholarship.  

We value a liberal education, which combines the sustained study of a particular field of knowledge with the ability to approach it critically through exposure to different intellectual traditions and points of view.  

We value active engagement in learning on the part of our students, and their contributions to innovation in our programs and pedagogical activities.  

We value the academic freedom that is essential to the discovery and transmission of knowledge, the development of critical approaches, and true engagement in learning and discovery.  

We value the opportunity to learn from and with each other, in our classrooms laboratories, libraries, theatres, residences, dining and sports facilities, as well as in the broader community.  

We value outstanding teaching, research and creative expression.  

We value the pursuit of excellence in all that we undertake, and we aim to instil the aspiration to excel in our students and in all other members of our community.  

We value principles of sustainability and seek to integrate them into our academic programs and our individual and institutional activities.  

We value the natural beauty of our surroundings and exceptional architectural quality in our built environment.