Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU or simply Laurier) is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. It is named in honour of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the seventh prime minister of Canada. Laurier offers undergraduate and graduate programs in a variety of fields with over 17,000 full-time undergraduate students, over 1,000 full-time graduate students, and nearly 4,000 part-time students as of late 2019. Laurier's varsity teams, known as the Laurier Golden Hawks, compete in the West Conference of the Ontario University Athletics, affiliated with U Sports.
History In 1910, the Lutheran Synod established a seminary, which opened to students in 1911, under the name Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary of Eastern Canada. In 1914, the seminary expanded its offerings to include non-theological courses and adopted the name "the Waterloo College School." In 1924, the institution evolved into the Waterloo College of Arts.
It became affiliated with the University of Western Ontario ("Western") in 1925 and introduced honors degree programs in the arts.
In 1960, the Lutheran Church transitioned its sponsorship of Waterloo College, resulting in a revised charter that led to the renaming of the seminary to Waterloo Lutheran University. This name was subsequently changed to Wilfrid Laurier University on November 1, 1973, following the enactment of the relevant provincial law by Ontario Lieutenant-Governor Ross Macdonald, who later served as Laurier's chancellor. The name honored Wilfrid Laurier; while the former Prime Minister of Canada had no local connections, the university retained its WLU nickname. The seminary and theological programs of Waterloo Lutheran University continued to be offered by the affiliated Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. The change of name was officially approved by the Waterloo Lutheran board of governors during a meeting held on June 12, 1973."University renamed", Ottawa Journal, June 13, 1973, p. 1
Laurier's school colours are purple and gold.
Expansion In 1999, Laurier expanded its footprint by establishing a second campus in Brantford. Additionally, in 2006, the Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work relocated from the Waterloo campus to a campus situated in downtown Kitchener. The Brantford campus is centered around a cluster of historic properties in the downtown area, which have been thoughtfully restored for university purposes. These include a former Carnegie library, Brantford's 1880 post office, and a 1950 Odeon Theatre.
On April 18, 2018, Wilfrid Laurier University received approval for a new campus location in Milton. In collaboration with Conestoga College, this new campus was slated to be constructed within the Milton Education Village. The Milton campus, as outlined on WLU's website, was aligned with a program offering focus on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM). However, due to budget constraints imposed by the Conservative government, the plan for this STEAM-focused academic venture, along with expansion on other campuses, was canceled. The plan for the Milton campus was later approved in June 2021, and its first class opened in the autumn of 2024.
Academics
The university has an enrolment of about 17,000 full-time and part-time undergraduate students, and over 1,500 full-time and part-time graduate students. It has over 500 faculty and staff members. Laurier has been transitioning from a primarily undergraduate university to a mid-size research university. In the 2022 Maclean's magazine survey of Canadian universities, Laurier was ranked seventh out of 15 Canadian universities in the magazine's comprehensive university category.
The registrar's report for winter 2016 indicates that the six most popular majors at Laurier, across the entire university, were (in order): business, communications studies, psychology, criminology, economics, and biology.
A September 2017 report indicated that students could choose to concentrate in composition, comprehensive, music education, music history, theory and critical analysis, performance, or community music; second-year Bachelor of Music students could take music therapy as an option. In addition, Laurier is home to the Penderecki String Quartet - an internationally-recognised group playing largely new compositions. The music faculty boasts two performance spaces, the Theatre Auditorium and the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall (named after a contralto and former chancellor of Laurier). Laurier's strength in "music and business education" has been identified as one of the reasons that the Waterloo region is a "powerful educational hub" by former University of Waterloo president, and former governor-general of Canada, David Johnston. Laurier was named Canada's Best Music Campus by CBC Radio in 2013.
+ Demographics of student body (2015–16) Undergraduate Graduate Male 44.9% 40.7% Female 55.1% 59.3% Canadian student 94.8% 93.7% International student 5.2% 6.3% According to Maclean's, "Standout Programs" at Laurier in 2017–2018 included business administration, game design and development, and law and arts (BA from Laurier and a law degree from the University of Sussex in the U.K. in six years).
The Balsillie School of International Affairs, opened in uptown Waterloo in 2008, is a partnership between Laurier, the University of Waterloo, and the Centre for International Governance Innovation. The Balsillie School offers three programs: a masters in arts in global governance, a masters in international public policy and a PhD program in global governance.
Cooperative education Laurier has the oldest business cooperative education ("co-op") program in English-speaking Canada and the largest business co-op program in Canada. Students are able to enjoy co-op opportunities with dozens of companies, including KPMG, Ernst and Young, PepsiCo, Scotiabank, Unilever, and Manulife Financial.
Laurier Library As of the 2014–2015 annual report, the Laurier Library holds 1 million print volumes, 312,000 electronic books, 68,000 electronic journals, and 280 databases, thousands of media titles (about 5,000 including streaming and DVDs). In addition, the library is a member of the tri-university "group of libraries" (University of Waterloo, University of Guelph, Wilfrid Laurier University), through which access to a combined information collection in excess of seven million print items is available.
There are three physical locations for the library: the Waterloo campus' primary library (on the west end of the campus, housing the majority of the collection and the majority of the librarians and staff), the Brantford campus' digital library and learning commons space (in Grand River Hall, which includes offices for the librarians on that campus) and the collection space in the Brantford Public Library (on the first and second floors), and the Social Work Library in Kitchener.
The library hosts an institutional repository devoted to Laurier scholarship. It houses faculty scholarship, theses, dissertations, online journals, and an archival collection of The Cord dating to 1926.
Lazaridis School of Business & Economics
The Lazaridis School of Business & Economics is the business school of Wilfrid Laurier, and is located in Waterloo, Ontario. With more than 160 full-time and 60 part-time faculty, the school is the largest faculty at Wilfrid. As of 2018, the School had over 30,000 alumni. In 2010, it was named an "outstanding business school" by The Princeton Review. The school is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) for all of its undergraduate, master's, and PhD programs.
History Originally the "School of Business & Economics," it was renamed in September 2015 after Mike Lazaridis, co-founder of Research In Motion, and former Chancellor of the University of Waterloo. The re-branding followed a 2015 announcement of his pledge of $20-million for a new technology-focused management institute at the business school. In 2016, the School moved to the new Lazaridis Hall building.
Collaboration A program in association with the University of Waterloo confers double degrees. The Lazaridis School offers a part-time MBA program in downtown Toronto at the St. Andrew's Club and Conference Centre.
Locations The Waterloo campus offers full-time and part-time PhD, MBA, Master's, Economics and Honours Bachelor of Business Administration; the Brantford, Ontario campus offers a Bachelor of Business Technology Management program (as part of the Lazaridis School). Diploma programs in Accounting and Business Administration are also offered by the Lazaridis School.
Campuses Laurier maintains multiple campuses in Southern Ontario. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses of the original Waterloo campus; instead the university describes itself as a "multi-campus multi-community university". The university also operates offices in Kitchener, Toronto, and Yellowknife.
Waterloo campus
Laurier's Waterloo Campus is located in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo.
Residences
Laurier Waterloo operates one all female residence (Leupold Residence), one all male residence (Euler Residence), and multiple co-ed student residences. Together, these residences house approximately 2,780 men and women, with 2,664 beds reserved for undergraduate first-year students.
When applying to residences, students can choose to be a part of a Residence Learning Community, a themed residence environment.
Brantford campus
Laurier's Brantford Campus is located in Brantford, Ontario, approximately 50 km south of the campus in Waterloo. The campus opened its doors in 1999 with a total of 39 students in its inaugural year. As of January 2015, there were 2,625 full-time students, and an unstated number of part-time students, enrolled at the school. In late 2017, Laurier estimated a total of over 3,000 students.
According to Maclean's, Laurier's "Standout Programs" in 2017-2018 included Game Design and Development at the Brantford campus. "The program develops skills not only in game design, project management and entrepreneurship, but also considers how transformative games are used in areas such as education, corporate training, health care and more."
Kitchener campus
In late 2006 the Faculty of Social Work (previously on the Waterloo campus) moved to downtown Kitchener. Located on Duke St. it moved into the old St. Jerome's High School built in 1909, closed by Waterloo County Separate School Board in 1990 and was designated a heritage site by the City of Kitchener in 1993.
The move by WLU allowed the students to be closer to the community and social service agencies with which they are partnered. The old high school College Street wing with gym and pool were destroyed in a fire in 2003. The high school was formerly associated with St. Jerome College, which became a federate college of the University of Waterloo in 1960.
Milton campus The town of Milton, Ontario and Laurier have worked together since 2008 to develop a 150-acre campus in Milton within the planned Milton Education Village (MEV) on land donated by the town. In April 2018, the provincial party then in power announced a funding plan ($90 million) for the MEV that would accommodate a satellite campus of the university and also of Conestoga College, a recent partner in the project. Construction was expected to conclude in Q3 of 2021; in the meantime, Laurier would offer credit courses in rented premises, commencing in September 2019.