Julia Christensen Hughes
President
Yorkville University’s Dr. Julia Christensen Hughes, PhD, is a globally recognized innovator who is passionate about the transformational power of post-secondary education to change lives and improve society. As President and Vice Chancellor of one of Canada’s largest private universities, she has led the creation of Yorkville's Signature Learning Outcomes; a university-wide commitment to develop the next generation of ethical, highly skilled and socially conscious business leaders, psychotherapists, educators, and creative storytellers and designers.
Under Christensen Hughes’ visionary leadership, Yorkville – which boasts campuses in Vancouver, BC, Toronto, ON, and Fredericton, NB – has become a hub for innovative approaches to “relationship-rich” (Felten & Lambert, 2020), accessible education, with distinctive capabilities in: the creation of an exceptional student experience; high-demand, career-relevant programs; leading student recruitment practices; and high-quality faculty with a commitment to student engagement.
Before joining Yorkville in 2022, Christensen Hughes enjoyed a long and distinguished career in public higher education, where she held a number of leadership roles. From 2004-2007, she served as President of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), while also directing the University of Guelph’s Teaching Support Services, providing leadership for the University’s commitment to “student-centred learning”. Following those achievements, she went on to serve as founding dean of the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics, establishing its unique vision of “being and developing leaders for a sustainable world”. Under her guidance, Lang’s MBA was ranked in the top ten in the world, by Corporate Knights.
A passionate advocate for innovation and integrity in student learning, Christensen Hughes has received many awards and accolades for her service, including being named Professor Emerita and receiving the John Bell Award for Outstanding Teaching in University Education from the University of Guelph. She also received the Sheffield Award from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education, for research judged to be “most excellent” in the Canadian Journal of Higher Education. This award recognized her groundbreaking pan-Canadian study on academic integrity, which was featured on the cover of MacLean’s magazine and earned her regular interviews with the press, including with Michael Enright on CBC Radio. Recognizing her global advocacy for reforming business school education, Christensen Hughes was invited to New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly on the need for business schools to embrace the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Christensen Hughes earned both her MBA and PhD from the Schulich School of Business at York University; her dissertation was on the topic of organizational empowerment.
Her published work includes the co-edited books Academic Integrity in Canada: An Enduring and Essential Challenge (2022); Taking Stock 2.0: Transforming Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2022); Taking Stock: Research on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (2010); and Curriculum Development in Higher Education: Faculty-Driven Processes and Practices (2007). Her most recent journal articles have focused on the need to better align university rankings and faculty research with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.