Welcome from VPA
Message from the Vice President, Academics
Welcome to University Canada West!
My office’s mandate is to support the University’s mission as articulated in our Mission Statement:
UCW is an innovative business and technology-oriented, teaching-focused institution in Canada, offering applied undergraduate and graduate degrees for domestic and international students. The University is a dynamic and growing institution defined by its close connections to the business community and a commitment to outstanding student services.
With more than 110 nationalities represented on our campuses, we pride ourselves on the rich cultural diversity that makes our learning experience unique. This diversity is mirrored in our programs, which are designed to help you think globally while solving local and international challenges. Our faculty’s expertise ranges from Area Studies to Artificial Intelligence, from Management to Mathematics and Statistics, from Marketing to the Social Sciences, and from Project Management to Public Administration. I hope you will meet and study with as many of our talented colleagues as you can while at UCW.
The Academic team aims to create an exceptional teaching and learning environment in support of future leaders.
Dr. Mazi Shirvani
Interim Vice President, Academic
Dr. Mazi Shirvani joins University Canada West as the new interim Vice President, Academic. The distinguished mathematician completed both his BSc and PhD degrees at Queen Mary University of London. Following his doctoral studies, he embarked on a postdoctoral fellowship before joining the General Electric Co. of Britain's Advanced Research Lab from 1985 to 1987, working on neural networks and associative memories. In 1987, Dr. Shirvani moved to work in academia, joining the Department of Mathematics at the University of Alberta. Over three decades, he dedicated himself to teaching, research and administrative work, including significant labour relations duties. He retired as an emeritus professor in December 2018. Throughout his tenure, he served in various leadership roles, including Vice-Provost and Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research from 2008 to 2015, and chair of the Board of Trustees of the Universities Academic Pension Plan (UAPP) from 2007 to 2009. His research interests spanned Algebra and Applied Mathematics, with a focus on division rings, linear groups, combinatorial algebra and coagulation theory. After a hiatus during his decanal term, he returned to the algebraic problem of the classification of finite groups with a projective representation of prime degree over a division ring. The complete solution, likely to run to several hundred pages, will be published as a mathematical monograph. He has taught a diverse array of graduate and undergraduate mathematics courses, earning recognition such as the Faculty of Science Teaching Award in 2003 and the University of Alberta's prestigious Rutherford Award.
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