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Why Self-Identify?

Three TMU students seated on the SLC steps looking at a document together

The Student Diversity Self-ID program supports TMU’s Academic Plan priorities. The priorities are:

  • Enable greater student engagement and success through exceptional experiences.
  • Increase Scholarly Research and Creative Activity (SRC)  excellence, intensity and impact.
  • Foster an innovation ecosystem.
  • Expand community engagement and city building.

We know that some groups have been historically and persistently under-represented in higher education generally or in specific programs. An example is women in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Providing equitable opportunities to access a university education is an important goal for the university. We also need to make learning and the educational environment more inclusive for students who haven’t typically had equal opportunity to participate, but who now make up a growing number of prospective students (e.g. Indigenous students and students with disabilities.)

Benefits of pursuing diversity

Having a diverse student population has been shown to enhance learning for all students. TMU needs to understand the identities of students who are enrolled at university as well as those who are not enrolled. That understanding will allow us to establish a baseline and measure our progress towards a goal of becoming even more inclusive. We also want better data so that we can assess whether our faculty makeup represents our students,, which will also help us to attract and retain diverse students.