Year of Infinite Innovation

Welcome to 2023, the NOSM University “Year of Infinite Innovation.” Now that we have successfully transitioned to becoming a university and have provisional status with the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), we are planning for the next 12 months to be transformative. 

We will continue to evolve from being a medical school to becoming a university. Although we will not waiver from focusing on granting MD degrees—and from our primary mandate to meet the physician workforce needs for Northern Ontario—we expect to develop new plans for allied health profession programs and to explore new graduate degree programs. The development of new programs and degrees is an 18–36-month-long process for Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU) approvals and appropriate funding, so designing these initiatives will get underway this year. 

We expect that another primary focus this year will be to reinvigorate our relationships with the cities of Thunder Bay and Greater Sudbury and with Lakehead University and Laurentian University. After the impact of the CCAA insolvency at Laurentian University and the disruptions of the past three years, it is time to get back on track with building our vision for a higher-education institution that is focused on the issues of the day: resuscitating the failing health-care system and addressing health inequities in Northern Ontario. We must also resolve our financial deficit and make inroads with our major fundraising initiative, The Future Will See You Now.

Looking ahead, we will be hosting our first MD convocation as a university and installing our new Chancellor. The entire NOSM University team, spearheaded by the executive leadership group, is committed to the ongoing success of this institutional endeavor. I am deeply grateful for the entire team’s efforts.

This first report of the calendar year is shorter than the winter and spring President’s report as it is meant to bridge the more substantive reporting. The spring report is dedicated to the annual review of the university and the winter report is dedicated to the Strategic Plan. To view all President’s reports, please visit report.nosm.ca.