Region : British Columbia
City : Burnaby
Web site : www.sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University, commonly referred to as SFU, is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada with campuses in Burnaby, Surrey, and Vancouver.
The 1.7 km (0.66 sq mi) Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located 20 km (12 mi) from downtown Vancouver, was established in 1965 and comprises more than 30,000 students and approximately 950 faculty members. Undergraduate and graduate programs at SFU operate on a year-round tri-semester schedule and it is the only Canadian university competing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). SFU is the first Canadian research university with U.S. accreditation and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
SFU is consistently ranked as one of the top comprehensive universities in Canada, placing first in Maclean's annual University Rankings in 1993, 1996–1998, 2000, 2008–2013, 2015 and 2016. To date, SFU faculty and alumni have won 43 fellowships to the Royal Society of Canada, three Rhodes Scholarships and one Pulitzer Prize.
SFU has been rated as Canada's best comprehensive university (in 1993, 1996-1998, 2000, 2008-2013 and 2015) in the annual rankings of Canadian universities in Maclean's magazine since 1991. The Higher Education Strategy Associates ranked Simon Fraser University 6th nationally in Science and Engineering and 10th nationally in Social Sciences and Humanities. Research Infosource, Canada's leading provider of research intelligence evaluation, named SFU the top comprehensive university in Canada for "publication effectiveness" in 2006. Similar to most Canadian universities, SFU is a public university, with more than half of funding coming from taxpayers and the remaining from tuition fees. SFU was ranked 9th in Canada by U.S. News & World Report, and Webometrics Ranking of World Universities, which ranks universities on their presence on the Internet, ranks Simon Fraser University 3rd in Canada, 50th in North America and 60th in the world.
In the academic year 2010–11, SFU was home to 29,697 undergraduates, with 14,911 of them being full-time and 14,786 part-time. The university has grown in recent years, recently achieving an alumni population of over 100,000. It had 946 faculty members and 3,403 staff. In fall semester 2012, 4,269 International students enrolled, making up 17% of the undergraduate student body, one of the highest among Canadian universities. The majority of these international students (60%) come from Mainland China and South Korea (6%). SFU's undergraduate student union is known as the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS).
The university enrolls over 5,000 graduate students in a wide range of full-time and part-time academic programs. International students constitute 20% of the graduate student population as a whole and 30–40% in science and technology areas. A Graduate Student Society supports and advocates for graduate students at the university.
SFU also offers non-credit programs and courses to adult students. As of 2016, SFU Continuing Studies offers more than 300 courses and 27 certificate and diploma programs, mostly delivered either online or part-time from SFU's downtown Vancouver or Surrey campus. Continuing Studies also manages a part-time degree completion program, called SFU NOW: Nights or Weekends, for working adults pursuing a bachelor's degree.
SFU also works with other universities and agencies to operate joint research facilities. These include Bamfield Marine Station, a major centre for teaching and research in marine biology; TRIUMF, a powerful cyclotron used in subatomic physics and chemistry research. SFU is also a partner institution in Great Northern Way Campus Ltd in Vancouver. In March 2006, SFU approved an affiliation agreement with a private college for international students to be housed adjacent to its Burnaby campus. This new college named Fraser International College, which was in the Multi Tenant Facility (now renamed as "Discovery 2 Building") located in Discovery Parks Trust SFU site, is now moved into "Discovery 1 Building" after Discovery Parks Trust returned the building to Simon Fraser University. The MODAL Research Group, based at Simon Fraser, partners with multiple Canadian universities and arts organizations to carry out multi-disciplinary research in the arts with an emphasis on the study of artistic learning and engagement.
There are eight faculties at Simon Fraser University:
Sources : Wikipedia, www.sfu.ca
