As we pursue the three core aspects of our mission – education, research and community engagement – we are making concerted efforts to ensure our facilities and spaces best serve the needs of our people, today and tomorrow.
Built for Purpose: The University's Strategic Campus Plan
Built for Purpose outlines the University of Alberta’s long term priorities for infrastructure utilization, space optimization and investment prioritization to meet our strategic objectives and growth targets over the next 20 years.
Read the full planPurpose built campuses
Built for Purpose is primarily focused on the university’s five campuses — North, South, Campus Saint-Jean, Enterprise Square, and Augustana — envisioning them as vibrant, sustainable, accessible and collaborative spaces that give our students rich, memorable and meaningful experiences, ensure our researchers benefit from quality research spaces and supports and allow our campus communities to thrive by delivering transformational opportunities to learn, innovate, create, collaborate and support well-being.
Built for Purpose starts the conversation on how we can accommodate 60,000 students within the next decade, as detailed in Shape: A Strategic Plan of Impact 2023-2033, within our existing campus footprints. It is a flexible plan, allowing the university to respond to changing priorities and opportunities. The two core elements of the plan are:
- A set of priorities through 2045 intended to enable growth while holding or reducing our operating costs by strategically optimizing campus spaces and infrastructure
- Campus infrastructure intentions that bring current planning direction together in one place to signal what infrastructure we intend to retain, invest in, and dispose of within the next decade as part of our strategic approach to life-cycle management
In short, Built for Purpose paints a picture of what our campuses could look like in 20 years.
What we build and how we build it
Built for Purpose is a key component of the Infrastructure Planning Landscape that connects our institutional mission, strategic plans, and campus plans (what we build) to our planning tools (how we build it).
Together, our campus plans, which include the Integrated Asset Management Strategy (IAMS), the Long Range Development Plan and sector plans, as well as Built for Purpose, provide the foundation for effective infrastructure management. They will support the teaching, learning and research priorities of the institution through targeted infrastructure investments where they are needed to support growth.
Consultation and plan development process
Built for Purpose was developed iteratively with contributions from a multi-disciplinary working group and U of A community members spanning the entire institution including students, faculty, and staff across our colleges, faculties, and departments. Community feedback was summarized in a What We Heard report. The plan was approved by the Board of Governors in March 2025.
A broad analysis was conducted of existing U of A plans, current state conditions, key trends, issues and drivers for managing and setting priorities for the campuses. This work culminated in a series of discussion papers on various campus and space planning topics such as labs, classrooms, student spaces, libraries and museums. Discussion papers summarized current conditions and opportunities and considerations for the future. Discussion papers were shared with key interest holders for feedback.
Feedback on the discussion papers was incorporated into an initial draft plan along with results of the analysis in Phase 1. The initial draft was shared back with the key interest holders from Phase 1, as well as a broader group of subject matter experts and project advisory groups.
Feedback from Phase 2 was reviewed, analysed and summarized for the purposes of refining the plan over a series of iterations, while continuing to check-in with interest holders, subject matter experts, and project advisory groups.
A revised plan, incorporating feedback and findings from previous phases was completed and circulated through several governance bodies for review. In addition, university-wide engagement occurred including town halls, a survey focus groups and meetings with several councils, committees and other university groups.
Feedback collected throughout the plan’s development was summarized in a What We Heard report, with feedback considered for incorporation in the plan. A final draft of Built for Purpose was prepared for governance review and approval.
The final draft plan was submitted to several governance bodies for review culminating with the Board of Governors who approved the plan.