Director General, Opportunities and Challenges 2026-2030
Under article 3.01 of Bylaw 3 which determines the process for the selection of the Director General, the Board of Governors must adopt a statement of the opportunities and challenges the Board expects the Director General to address during the first mandate.
The statement below identifies the principal considerations that will bear upon the College’s ability to achieve its educational mission and maintain its leadership position in college education.
Fulfilling Dawson College’s mission
Dawson’s Strategic Plan 2024-2029: Creating caring learning communities encapsulates the values and many of the attributes and aspirations that contribute to the College’s identity and how it seeks to accomplish its mission as an institution of higher education.
Foremost among these elements is the value of well-being for all, an approach to decision-making that gives primacy to what will enhance the student experience and the recognition that all employees, across every category, make an essential contribution to the fulfillment of the College’s mission.
The list below helps to provide shape and substance to some key elements that contribute to Dawson’s distinctiveness:
- Diverse students whose curiosity and desire to learn provide essential ingredients for success in stimulating academic programs;
- Qualified faculty who combine expertise in their field with a commitment to enriching students’ learning experiences;
- Dedicated employees who accompany and support students and teachers in myriad ways;
- An approach to college education that seeks not simply to prepare graduates for further studies or immediate entry into the work force, but to help them cultivate the broad skills they will need to be critical thinkers and informed citizens who are able to contribute in an increasingly complex world;
- Ongoing efforts to decolonize the College so that Dawson can do its part to redress the past and ongoing harms committed by settler colonialism;
- Innovative grass-roots initiatives that have spawned significant changes in pedagogy, in the design of classrooms and in the way college systems and services function;
- An internationally recognized, award-winning program of sustainability which acknowledges that community well-being is intimately connected with global well-being.
The above-mentioned contributions, and many others, intersect and connect in untold ways, engaging students and employees, building connections, community and well-being. Over the coming years, some of the challenges described below will test what it means to be Dawson.
Dawson College – An integral part of Quebec society
The revised Charter of the French Language has created a new context in which Dawson operates. In the spring of 2025, the College will graduate its first cohort of students who do not hold a certificate of eligibility for instruction in English and who are required to pass the Épreuve uniforme de français.
The discussions, planning and organization that were necessary to satisfy these conditions have been significant and testify to the College’s commitment to meet the spirit of the Charter. These efforts will help ensure that Dawson graduates are prepared to interact, thrive within Québec society and participate in its development. Given the newness of these undertakings, the College is continually monitoring student achievement to determine where adjustments and support may be needed to foster student success.
Within this new environment, Dawson must also prioritize the admission of students who are eligible for instruction in English and respect a permanent limit on the number of full-time students. These conditions raise enrolment management to a level of strategic importance.
New facilities – Improve the learning environment
For more than a decade, the Quebec Ministry of Higher Education has acknowledged that Dawson suffers from a serious deficit of space, now calculated at more than 10,000 square metres. In the culmination to a complex, eight-year effort to resolve this shortfall, Dawson has been working with the Ministry to secure long-term rental facilities that meet ministerial norms.
These new premises will require renovation to properly accommodate College activities and will need to be integrated into the College’s operations. To complete the entire project, after activities have moved out of the main Atwater campus, parts of that building will also need to be renovated to better provide student space.
Budgetary constraints – A challenge to Dawson’s mission
For the next few years, Dawson will have to manage the impact of budget cuts on the College’s operations and capital expenditures. A further constraint comes in the form of a limit on the College’s total number of remunerated hours, which means that even if Dawson has the financial resources available, it may not be able to recruit or replace employees. The implications of the cuts and the limit on Dawson’s ability to achieve its educational mission are significant.
As the College navigates these turbulent waters, it must focus on ways to ensure that the quality of education is maintained and that students have the support they need to develop to their highest academic and personal potential.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) – Leveraging the benefits and mitigating the adverse effects
Like all post-secondary institutions, Dawson is grappling with the impact of generative artificial intelligence, seeking ways to leverage AI’s considerable benefits while safeguarding academic standards and integrity in a learning environment where authentic learning, originality and critical thinking remain central.
Given the raw, continuously expanding power of AI and its still largely unexplored and little-understood potential to transform learning environments, a value-driven response to AI is key to channelling AI into desirable areas and limiting or proscribing it in others. Defining where those lines are drawn, and what leeway there is to move them, will pose significant challenges, not least as AI-generated content and work efficiencies become increasingly embedded in all fields and workplaces, including Dawson.
Connections with the higher education network
Dawson benefits from its membership in associations like the Fédération des cégeps, and in others that are more region- or language-based, such as the Regroupement des cégeps de Montréal and the Consortium of English-language CEGEPs, Colleges and Universities of Quebec.
These networks provide important forums for sharing information and best practices, forging alliances, advocating for student success and promoting institutional autonomy. Dawson must also maintain a close working relationship with the Ministry so that the College can fully represent its community’s needs about the new facilities, budgets and other matters.
Dawson College – A leader in the college network
Dawson’s leadership position has been built on innovation and excellence inside and outside the classroom and on the student-centered delivery of services. Since 1969, the College has provided a diverse student population with transformative learning opportunities in a stimulating environment that values respect and inclusion.
Dawson’s mission to educate, engage and enrich the lives of students prepares them to become active and responsible global citizens who can contribute to a peaceful and sustainable future. Some 110,000 Dawson graduates have made important contributions to every sector of Quebec society and beyond, in medical and engineering fields, as artists and designers, scientists, business leaders, specialists in the social services, writers, poets and filmmakers.
