As part of a one-time Government of Saskatchewan grant to support pandemic and post-pandemic recovery, efficiencies in academics and administration, revenue generation, and government priorities articulated in Saskatchewan's Growth Plan, the University of Saskatchewan (USask) Health Sciences Deans Committee has approved charters related to two projects funded as strategic priority initiatives.

• Download the April 2022 stakeholder PowerPoint presentation

The shared courses project will assess opportunities to deliver shared health science courses to students in the university’s health science colleges and schools and will develop any required supporting policies, procedures, and infrastructure to enable these courses.

This initiative will be piloted by investigating opportunities to share new and existing Indigenous health and wellness courses. The project will work in partnership with — and benefit from the momentum built by — the tuition bridge-funded project, which is currently developing an online introductory professionalism common course for health science students.

The project will:

• undertake curriculum mapping of health science courses and identify possible courses that can be shared;
• Identify the academic home for shared courses;
• Identify revenue sharing model for shared courses; 
• seek appropriate academic approval
• pilot a sharing arrangement for new and existing Indigenous health and wellness courses

The health sciences reorganization project will work to define a governance framework that will amplify each of the disciplines in the health sciences and model ways to connect while advancing shared academic and research priorities. The project is seeking to enhance collaboration between the university’s health science colleges, schools, and the administrative USask Health Sciences unit.

The project will:

• undertake an environmental scan of comparator institutions
• map the current state of internal USask structures
• engage with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive understanding of what “stands in the way” of collaboration
• develop a proposed “future state” organizational structure and articulate the administrative, governance, and budgetary infrastructure that will be required to facilitate implementation of the future state

NOTE: Any proposed changes will be implemented after approval via the standard USask tricameral governance processes. The Institutional Context Report released in June 2022 comprises a portion of the deliverables listed above.

Consultations

In January 2022, the steering committee began the stakeholder consultation process on the above-listed projects funded as strategic priority initiatives. Between January and mid-May, meetings will have been held at nine health science faculty councils or faculty-staff meetings. Steering committee representatives will also have engaged with approximately 60 additional stakeholder committees, groups, or individuals.

If you are part of a group that is interested in learning more about these projects and stakeholder consultations, please contact a project support member.

For questions about these strategic priority initiative projects, please contact Interim Associate Provost, Health, Dr. Adam Baxter-Jones (PhD), or Health Sciences Projects and Planning Officer Dr. Erin Barbour-Tuck, PhD.

• Email Dr. Baxter-Jones
• Email Dr. Erin Barbour-Tuck, PhD