Experiential Education For All

2018 GOAL » Be the world-leading university in co-op education and other forms of experiential and work-integrated learning

At Waterloo, higher education is not, and never has been, limited to the classroom.

Waterloo will make experiential education integral to how all students learn, broaden the type of work-integrated learning opportunities available and offer more international and research opportunities. This approach will build world-ready graduates who are at home in culturally diverse environments.

2013-2018 objectives

Waterloo will continue to be world leaders in experiential education through our strategic efforts. These efforts will mean that by 2018 we will:

  • Educate outstanding and world-ready graduates whose skills are in high demand globally
  • Develop an innovative culture of experiential education at the University
  • Enlarge the resource base of professional credentialized and / or discipline-relevant employers
  • Achieve a closer integration of research opportunities and co-op work terms
    • In 2014/15, the theme leads for experiential education, transformational research and academic programming determined that they would work collaboratively to address this objective, although it remains an objective under the Experiential Education theme
  • Expand experiential education to include service-based activities and international programs

Progress and outcomes

For over 60 years, Waterloo excelled at linking a student’s academic goals with their career goals through experiential education. The Strategic Plan for experiential education continued to drive Waterloo’s leadership in experiential education internationally. Progress and outcome measures were developed to demonstrate progress towards this important goal.

View our progress and outcomes measures

Learn more