In developing this plan, an early consideration for the Strategic Planning Committee - and by extension, the community - was whether the University's mission needed to change. Though the input resulting from the planning process was extensive, it did not suggest that such a need exists. Taken together, the priorities and goals in Taking Our Place: University of Manitoba Strategic Plan 2015 - 2020 can be viewed as a way of giving life to our mission. They reflect the best efforts of members of our community to define how we can pursue this mission over the next five years, reflecting our current context. They incorporate our community's commitment to excellence in teaching, research, scholarly work and other creative activities. They address the needs of our students today, and what we believe they may require from the University in the future. They recognize that a university is a community of colleagues, a neighbour, a partner and a leader, and that the work of its members makes important contributions locally, nationally and globally. And they also acknowledge that the diversity and complexity of the University of Manitoba require that difficult decisions are made, but in a transparent and accountable manner.

This plan builds on the accomplishments of the Strategic Planning Framework 2009 - 2014, which identified the pursuit of academic enhancement, Indigenous achievement, an exceptional student experience and an outstanding workplace as the University's core priorities. It reinforces these existing priorities, while reflecting the natural evolution of planning over time. It embeds the University's goal of ensuring an exceptional student experience within all five priorities, it is more deliberate in its approaches to providing not just an outstanding working environment, but an outstanding learning environment, and it provides a focus to the University's external engagement efforts that was not defined in the previous Framework. Most notably, it strengthens the University's statement of commitment to Indigenous achievement, and articulates a pledge to pursue relationships and dialogue with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples based on mutual trust, respect, and reciprocity.

This Plan has been developed by the University of Manitoba community, and we will implement it with pride, energy and innovation in the pursuit of the University's mission: to create, preserve, communicate and apply knowledge, contributing to the cultural, social and economic well-being of the people of Manitoba, Canada and the world.