Saint Paul University (SPU) is pleased to announce the approval of its new Honours Bachelor of Arts in Social Innovation by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development of Ontario, in December.

The Bachelor joins the existing Certificate and Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation; both programs are committed to addressing the issue of poverty reduction in its many forms, working with marginalized communities and engaging with local and national leaders to promote justice, democracy and social change.

Fall 2018 registrations are now open for both the Certificate and the Graduate Diploma. The Bachelor will be available in English in the fall of 2019. All three programs are available in French.

As of September 2017, Saint Paul University is the first Canadian university to have an entire school dedicated solely to the new and promising field of social innovation. Though this field of study is brand new in academia, it is centuries old in terms of our communities' day-to-day lives. Every time we are collectively faced with a problem we have never encountered before and find new ways to fix it, we are practising social innovation.

Our world is facing enormous challenges: poverty, climate change, social exclusion, and so on. We need to address these problems and recognize that solutions will be found only through profound social change.

But how can we study such a thing? Social innovation cannot be taught only in a classroom, where you can learn analytical tools, historical facts or case studies. Social innovation must be learned outside academia

For this reason, the program is also linked to a social innovation hub. In this space, through the lens of critical thinking, students will interact daily with social entrepreneurs and social organizations. Saint Paul University's School of Social Innovation helps students create organizations that foster social change.