The university s mission statement also affirms the fundamental importance of research and teaching, the strong complementarity that exists between these two activities and the mutual enrichment that each activity lends the other. In order to fulfill our teaching mission as a liberal arts university, programme flexibility, interdisciplinary offerings and small classes are the norm. To attain these objectives Bishop s professors are required to teach a wide range of courses for their departments and commit themselves to a significant course workload and personal lab supervision each academic session. Further, professors are granted tenure and promotion only if performance in teaching is of a high standard.
Research is an integral part of our professors academic activity and their performance evaluation.
In an increasingly competitive market, student enrollment has increased this past decade and scholarship and bursary allocations have more than doubled. Bishop s has also been extraordinarily active in its exchange programmes and recruitment of international students. Our success at attracting and retaining both excellent students and excellent faculty has been hampered by the funding cutbacks of the last few years. The university has experienced faculty losses. A number of new professors, hired in the 1990s and successful at gaining external funding, have been recruited by other institutions.