Stand UP for Brampton’s Paul Vicente and Rowena Santos met with the President of Ryerson University, Dr. Mohamed Lachemi, to discuss his vision for a new university in Brampton. Through collaboration, Ryerson will be a key part of the transformation of our downtown core resulting in economic growth and job creation in our city.

But how else will Ryerson help differentiate our city from other municipalities? In this final article we share Dr. Lachemi’s description of the programming at the new campus which will position Brampton a leader on the world stage.

Ryerson University Part III: Brampton as a world leader with specialized programming

Currently, Ryerson offers its 45,000 students in Toronto over 60 different undergraduate programs, but in Brampton, the program offering will be tailored.

“We don’t want to duplicate what we are already offering. We want to offer something that will be useful, something that will offer to serve the city in terms of job opportunities for those that go to the school.” Dr. Lachemi explained.

Increasingly, students need to be prepared for jobs of the future. Ryerson is responding to this need especially in Brampton, by prioritizing the mandate from the province to offer courses geared toward science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM).

Dr. Lachemi believes there is an area in which a huge gap exists in terms of talent and offers significant opportunities for students. He was excited in sharing that Ryerson University is planning to lead program development in Cyber Sciences and Security at their Brampton campus. This would be a groundbreaker for an institution to develop much needed talent.

“We have a broad vision for Brampton. We don’t want a school just like any other school. We want to create an opportunity for Brampton to shine, not just locally, but globally.”

Referring to cyber sciences and security, Dr. Lachemi explained that “We want the programming to focus on that aspect, but not just from the science and engineering side, but also from the business side. All of our partners here on Bay Street; everyone is telling us that cyber security is important.”

Financial institutions, banks, police services, governments, and utilities are looking at their operations and the new risks presented by global hackers looking to steal information or potentially cause disruption. The area of cyber security has become a top priority with burgeoning demand for skilled people.

Programming focused on cyber security would attract investment from around the world. Settled only fifteen minutes away from the country’s most important airport, and as mentioned in Part II of this series, Ryerson’s university campus in Brampton is at the center of the GTA’s innovation hub where it can reach out to both Toronto and Waterloo to bring them to the table.

“In terms of cyber security, when I am talking to banks, they have thousands of people working for them. That’s also an aspect of training. This is new stuff,” Dr. Lachemi explains while highlighting the demand for such programs within the private sector.

Ryerson is known for its integrated, hands-on and collaborative approach to learning as shared in Part 1 of this series of articles. It is the only university in the system that has an advisory board composed of industry leaders for each of its one programs. They advise on what’s important to the industry in order to create opportunities for the students they hire.

“I think at Brampton we will focus on building a platform where students will be walking alongside with people in the industry and benefit from that experience. We need industry leaders to be involved.”

Dr. Lachemi believes that the new university in our city is poised to become a world-class source for talent. “Brampton can be that hub; it can become a global center for cyber security. It will differentiate Brampton from anything else in the country, I tell you.”

After our meeting with Dr. Lachemi, we felt incredibly inspired by what’s to come. Ryerson’s commitment to collaborate and help build our city with a vision to make Brampton a global center for cyber security will have economic and social ripple effects across generations. Stand UP for Brampton looks forward to this transformational growth.

In case you missed it, here is the entire series of articles generated from our meeting with the President of Ryerson, Dr. Mohamed Lachemi.

Part I: Community collaboration to build a city – Click here.

Part II: Economic Benefits and the Innovation Hub – Click here.

Part III: Brampton as a world leader with specialized programming – Click here.

Photos by Shelby Morell.

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