The fonds consists of records made or received or inherited by Academic Planning Services in the course of its activities. Activities documented include the operations of the the Academic Planning Committee (predecessor of the Senate Committee on Academic Planning), external reviews of university departments, new academic program proposals, and SFU's participation in TRIUMF (the particle accelerator facility located at the University of British Columbia and operated jointly by a number of Canadian universities). Records include meeting agendas, minutes and support papers, and external review reports and related documentation. For more detailed descriptions of record types, see individual series descriptions.

Note that many of the records were created before the establishment of Academic Planning Services and were inherited by the unit: all of series 1 (Academic Planning Committee), many files in series 2 (External reviews), all of series 3 (TRIUMF correspondence), and some of series 4 (General correspondence). Note also that the only records post-dating Alison Watt's tenure as Director (1990-1996) are found in series 2 (External reviews).

Fonds consists of records of the Academic Planner for SFU. Fonds includes, correspondence, policies, reference material, and other materials. Materials relate to the formation of University policies, the appointment of University faculty and staff, the dissemination of information regarding SFU through various media outlets, and other functions.