The Faculty of Applied Health Sciences (AHS) will become the Faculty of Health as of January 1, 2021, with a full transition to the new name by September 2021.
The idea came out of the Faculty’s most recent strategic plan, which calls for more clarity regarding the name brand, especially to external stakeholders. The proposal passed at the October 27 Board of Governors meeting.
“While we built a community around the AHS acronym and love it, we also saw that externally, there was confusion about what we represented as a Faculty,” said Dean Lili Liu. “Rebranding as the Faculty of Health allows others to easily understand what we study and aim to achieve – which is a healthier world in all its dimensions.”
The name change is also more representative of the Faculty’s three academic units – Kinesiology, Recreation and Leisure Studies, and the School of Public Health and Health Systems – and the degrees they offer, which range from BSc, BA, BPH to MSc, MA, MPH, MHE, MHI and PhD. The three units conduct research and teach health from a variety of viewpoints: from physiology and neuroscience to community wellness, social justice and public health.
“The name does not change the culture of our Faculty,” said Dean Liu. “We will still be the same caring, welcoming community we have always been.”
The Faculty grew out of the School of Physical and Health Education with the establishment of the world’s first department of Kinesiology in 1967, and was renamed School of Physical Education and Recreation in 1968. The name changed to the Faculty of Human Kinetics and Leisure Studies in the early 1970s and became the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences in 1990.
The last University of Waterloo Faculty to undergo a name change was the Faculty of Environment in 2008.