Innovation

The Calgary Curriculum

The Calgary curriculum is rigorous, it is relevant, and connects how we teach with how students learn. It equips students with the knowledge and skills needed for future professional success. We commit to enhance student experience, and to deepening the role of experience in student learning.

Innovative Teaching and Teaching Innovation

We will continue to be a leader in legal education, and will work with the University of Calgary's Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning to support pedagogical innovation. As the practice of law continues to change, so too must legal education. Students need to understand how innovations in technology and business alter how we deliver legal services. We will continue to educate students on innovations that affect how legal skills are applied.

Student Experience

Our goal is to provide a rich learning experience for students, one that prepares them for success as professionals and as citizens. We will promote skills and attributes that enable students to make significant contributions to their communities and to society.

We will providing a welcoming, inclusive and diverse learning environment. Recruiting top students with diverse records of excellence in academics, professional experience, and community service remains our priority. We remain committed to providing a JD program that is one of the best in the nation.

Experience for Impact: Leaders in Experiential Education

Experiential education involves learning by doing. It occurs inside the classroom and out, but it has been at the core of the faculty’s ethos since 1976. We are committed to student experiential learning, through our clinics and our successful Mooting & Debating program, as well as more recent innovations, such as courses in leadership for lawyers, technology in legal practice, and legal innovation.

Clinical courses allow students to develop their skills on real problems, engage with evolving areas of the law, and to assist those in need. We have a wide range of clinical offerings, including the Business Venture Clinic, the Tax Court Assistance Program, and the Public Interest Law Clinic. We will continue our longstanding commitment to clinical education, and explore possibilities to connect new clinical experiences with our developing research.

Indigenous Peoples and Legal Education

The Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have a particular resonance for legal education. We commit to responding to the Calls to Action in a way that equips our graduates with the skills necessary to take part in the project of reconciliation. This includes ensuring our curriculum educates students about the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Indigenous rights, Indigenous law, and Indigenous-Crown relations. We will also continue to educate students about the intersections between the rights of Indigenous peoples, resource development and the environment.