Future-Ready Graduate Education

On 15 and 16 October 2025, the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies, and the Canadian Collaborative for Society, Innovation and Policy welcomed 100 participants to McMaster University for two days of discussion and deliberative sense-making at the Big Thinking Summit on Future Ready Graduate Education in Canada.

The event combined deliberative workshops and catalyst roundtables, prompting reflection on key themes associated with the future of graduate education in Canada, helping to collectively move a vision forward in which success means fully enabled higher education institutions equipped to support future-ready emerging researchers and leaders.

The Proceedings summarize the transcripts of roundtable discussions, reflections, and the keynote panel. For our team at CCSIP, the record and analysis of deliberations feed into the evidence needed to guide our research and action agenda and, as such, are a vital element of our approach to systems change.