Laurier Shares Its Vision for Milton with the Province

The Ontario government has announced that Laurier’s proposal for establishing a postsecondary site in the Town of Milton is the only submission it received for this location under the province’s Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) for expanding access to postsecondary education.

Laurier will have an opportunity to present its vision to the government, which will then evaluate it for alignment with provincial objectives.

In January, the Ontario government issued guidelines and templates for an REOI for the expansion of postsecondary education in both Milton and in Brampton. Laurier filed its submission by the province’s deadline of March 6, 2017. The province plans to evaluate the submissions and then invite institutions to further develop their proposals through an Invitational Call for Proposals starting in May 2017. Discussions will ensue over the course of the summer with final decisions on the expansion process planned for Fall 2017.

Laurier has been working with the Town of Milton since 2008 to explore the possibility of establishing a postsecondary site in this fast-growing community, which is located on the west side of the GTA.

Earlier this year, Laurier’s Board of Governors approved two motions that further support this endeavor.

The first motion authorized the university to submit a proposal to the province in response to the government’s REOI process.

The second motion approved a one-year extension to the university’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Town of Milton. The MOU, originally signed in 2008 with two subsequent renewals, confirms the partnership between the Town and Laurier to explore the expansion of Laurier into Milton.

At Laurier, the approval of academic programming is the responsibility of the University Senate. As part of this REOI process, Senate will be asked to endorse, in principle, the direction of the academic plan for Milton, with approval of programs occurring at a later date as part of Senate’s regularly approved processes.