LA&PS plays an important role in enhancing the university’s reputation for leading the way in educational programming, as demonstrated by March's QS World University Rankings by Subject report. In this year’s report, LA&PS helped secure York's position among the top five in Canada for several disciplines, including English language and literature which ranked fourth among Canadian institutions, and top 100 globally.

Additionally, LA&PS contributed to programs that achieved rankings within the top 150 globally and among the top five in Canada for several other subject areas, including:

• Philosophy (tied third in Canada)
• Anthropology (tied fourth in Canada)
• History (fourth in Canada)
• Sociology (tied fourth in Canada)
• Social policy & administration (fourth in Canada)
• Accounting & finance (tied fourth in Canada)

The Faculty also saw high rankings for linguistics, business and management studies, communications & media studies, economics and econometrics, and politics and international studies, placing them within the top 10 in Canada. 

In March 2025, the Faculty proudly launched CoLearn: Collaborative Learning Space, a new active learning hub in 117 South Ross, thanks to funding from the Ontario government's Training Equipment and Renewal Fund (TE&RF) intended to help modernize post-secondary facilities. CoLearn includes three active learning classrooms and a one button recording studio, supporting student-centered learning with access to wrap-around technical and pedagogical support for instructors. To support the launch of CoLearn, the Teaching & Learning team also created a suite of new pedagogical resources to support teaching innovation and active learning.

The Work Integrated Learning team in collaboration with the Teaching & Learning team is developing the new Upskilling for Co-op: Preparing for the Workplace Micro-Credential, which will launch in Fall 2025 and continue to support LA&PS students before starting their job search and entering the workforce. Informed by industry and employer partners, the curriculum addresses existing gaps in the labour market and will prepare students for success.

The LA&PS team also supported the development of two new co-op courses and expedited the review and approval process.

This year, we successfully developed and launched a new course designed to help international and mature/transfer students transition smoothly into university life and build a strong foundation for academic and personal success. DLLL 1001 - University Literacies and Belonging helps new students develop critical thinking, effective writing and reading strategies, confidently plan for exams and learn the art of research.

We launched a new Academic & Communication Excellence (ACE) certificate program to support international student success. From unfamiliar classroom dynamics to different standards of academic communication and participation, the ACE Program empowers international students to navigate these differences with confidence by developing the skills and strategies needed to succeed in the Canadian academic environment. The program includes a series of practical workshops and hands-on projects. In its first year, 109 international students registered for the program.

We are working with academic units to Indigenize LA&PS program curriculum by providing access to new resources and supports.

This year, the University approved phase one of the Faculty's new graduate program, PhD in Information Technology. The tentative launch date is Fall 2026.

This year, the University approved phase one of the Faculty's new Black Studies undergraduate honours degree program. A tentative launch date will be Fall 2027.

We are working with academic units to Indigenize LA&PS program curriculum by providing access to new resoures and supports.

This year, the curriculum team processed a total of 303 undergraduate and 36 graduate curriculum proposals for the 2025-26 academic year.

We onboarded all LA&PS academic units onto Kuali, our new efficient Curriculum Management System (CMS), which is an innovative digitalization of an older paper formatted process. Kuali will be used for all course and degree proposal submissions, repository system and academic calendar publications.

The team developed and implemented a new tracking system for Cyclical Program Review process and support extensively the review of the programs in the Faculty.

We launched a new Teaching & Learning website to support LA&PS instructors, which includes resources on Assessment (re)Design, Inclusive Teaching and Active Learning to support the adoption of active, experiential and inquiry-based learning that enhances student success.

This year, the LA&PS Experiential Education fund awarded $37,750 to LA&PS course directors to support the development of experiential education opportunities in the classroom, community and work integrated learning activities.