Jasper, Alberta · Canada
Strong in body.
Free in mind.
An education for the whole human. University of Jasper is a proposed university in the Canadian Rockies. Its first programme is a six-week field semester for a small group of adults, taught in person and offline.
In person. In nature. Open to the world.
About the university
A new university, starting small, in a mountain town.
University of Jasper is a founding project led by Vincent Zhang. The long-term aim is a university where physical training, the humanities of many civilizations, and the foundations of mathematics, physics, chemistry and economics are taught together.
The first step is deliberately modest: a six-week field semester in Jasper for six to eight adults. Students hike and camp, train with a coach, read primary texts, run experiments and make something another person can use. Phones and the internet stay off during teaching.
Read the vision and mission
Hike and camp
Twelve field sessions, from map reading to camp planning
Train with a coach
Twelve coached martial-arts lessons on balance, footwork and control
Read primary texts
Plato, Laozi, Confucius, Hume, Mill, Wollstonecraft, Tagore, E. Pauline Johnson, Douglass
Restate the opposing argument before answering it
Run experiments
Twelve investigations: friction, pendulums, heat, sampling, energy
An individual oral defence of one conclusion
Make something another person can use
A packing guide, a route worksheet or another paper tool
The Jasper Commons Hearing in week 6
Phones and the internet stay off
Personal phones and internet off during teaching and camps, with medical, access and emergency exceptions
Why Jasper
A place to become.
Jasper is a small town inside a national park in the Rocky Mountains. The weather changes quickly, distances are real, and most questions can’t be settled by looking at a screen.
Here a route has to be planned before anyone leaves, a camp has to stay dry, and a group has to agree before it moves. Those ordinary demands give the reading and the experiments something to answer to.
- Weather
- Choose layers and shelter for the conditions you checked, not the ones you hoped for.
- Distance
- Read the map, estimate the time and agree in advance when to turn back.
- Quiet
- With phones put away, attention goes to the place, the text and the people beside you.
Jasper, in song.
Vincent Zhang’s original song follows the glaciers, lakes and remembered journeys of Jasper. It gives a personal voice to the place at the heart of the university’s founding vision.
Listen on YouTube (opens in a new tab)Publications
The proposal, in writing.
Three documents set out the programme in detail: lessons, readings, safety arrangements, assessment, and what still has to be established. English edition, September 2026.
Founding document
Vision & Founding Charter
The founding letter, vision and mission, the educational method, the six-week programme and the staged path toward an operating institution.
Curriculum
Field Semester Instructor Guide
Timed lesson plans for all 144 hours, twelve laboratory cards, primary readings, camp arrangements and assessment criteria.
Learner workbook
Offline Learner Fieldbook
Sheets for field decisions, experiments, close reading, debate and the final project. Made to be carried and written in.
“We human beings have our special responsibilities to make our society and world better.”