In May 2024, VIU’s Board of Governors approved a new Policy Framework that sets out a consistent process for developing, reviewing, renewing, and repealing/retiring VIU university-level Board of Governors-approved policies. With the Framework approved, the University will undertake a process to align its policies to it. When it begins, the policy renewal process will entail updating existing university-level policies and introducing a few new policies, all of which will be shared with the campus community for input. Over the coming months, we will be sharing more information about the policy renewal process at VIU institutional meetings.
When the process begins, consultation with the campus community on each policy category will take place on a rolling schedule. Opportunities to participate in consultation will be broadly shared with the campus community. This process is expected to take approximately two years.
Until the policy renewal process has concluded all existing policies will remain in effect. Academic policies governed by VIU’s Senate and policies related to the governance and administration of the Board of Governors are out of the scope of the policy renewal process.
Frequently Asked Questions
In March 2024, VIU adopted a new Policy Framework that sets out a consistent process for developing, reviewing, renewing, and repealing/retiring VIU university-level Board of Governors-approved policies. While individual policies are regularly reviewed, it has been some time since VIU has reviewed all its university-level policies. The adoption of the Framework means this is an ideal time to renew and align university-level policies to it.
The policy renewal process will also reflect policy best practices, the University’s values as well as ensuring VIU is in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. The result of the process will be a set of Board of Governors-approved university-level policies and procedures that are clear, easy to understand and support good governance and institutional transparency.
VIU’s existing university-level Board of Governors approved policies evolved over many years and followed a number of different processes for their development and review. As a result, there were varying levels of detail, different formats and other inconsistencies across policies that needed to be addressed. The new Framework establishes a common approach to how VIU establishes new policies and updates and maintains existing policies. This ensures that all VIU’s policies are consistent, clear, easy to understand, and support good governance and institutional transparency.
The Policy Framework was developed in 2023 and involved a review of VIU’s policies as well as a review of comparator post-secondary institutions in BC and two institutions outside of BC. See a summary of how the Policy Framework was developed.
The policy renewal process is being led by the General Counsel and University Secretary in collaboration with Executive and with approval from the VIU Board of Governors.
No timeline has been set for the review and renewal of VIU policies that are governed by the Senate. It is possible that they will be reviewed at some point in the future.
Project Contact
Office of the General Counsel and University Secretary via Policy@viu.ca