Imagine 2017
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
After 90 days of input and feedback from faculty, staff, administrators, trustees, and students, I am pleased to issue the first edition of
The University of Toledo main campus strategic plan, which is entitled, “Imagine 2017.” This plan operationalizes the university’s
strategic plan, which is entitled, “Directions 2011.”
This document is a high level summary of the conversations that have occurred over the past 90 days; it is not a finely word- smithed
manuscript of university ideals, aspirations, and goals; it is a high level outline of action plans to solve big strategic problems, which if
solved, reposition The University of Toledo to survive and thrive in the 21st century.
For many years, as a result of persistently declining state appropriations to higher education, most public universities have scaled back
their operations and support of academic programs to the point of not being able to adequately support their historical models of
teaching, research, and service. Given this nation’s “new normal” economy, we are left with no other choice but to rebalance our
tripartite mission and create a more cost-effective model of higher education--a model that honors our past, upholds our core values,
and achieves both high quality and financial sustainability in this new world.
This plan leverages the university’s current strengths in ways that will make it more distinctive and a better choice for prospective students.
If we implement this plan well, we will become the destination of choice for well-prepared students, under-prepared students, adult
learners, on-line learners, professional students, and graduate students; the university will become a more effective system of higher
education where teaching and learning are more effective, research and discovery are widely embraced and strategically focused, and
service and engagement are both relevant and impactful.
Thank you in advance for your willingness to explore this new path. If we navigate this path well, we will arrive at a better and more
sustainable destination. As always, teamwork is the key to our success because together, everyone achieves more.
In your service,
Scott L. Scarborough, Ph.D.
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
A UT System of Higher Education
TEACHING RESEARCH
SERVICE
UT System of Higher Education
TEACHING
• Portal for Well-prepared
Students
• Portal for Prepared & Underprepared Students
• Portal for Adult Students
• Portal for Online Students
• Portal for Graduate &
Advanced Professional
Students
UT System of Higher Education
Portal for Well-prepared Students
Honors College
Portal for Prepared & Under-prepared Students
University College
Portal for Adult Students
College of Adult Professionals
Portal for Online Students
UTXNET World Campus
Portal for Graduate & Advanced
Professional Students
Graduate College
PIPELINE
UT System of Higher Education
Honors College
University College
College of Adult Professionals
UTXNET World Campus
Graduate College
• Accelerated Curriculum &
Experiential Learning
• Experiential Learning &
Student Success
• Prior Learning Assessment &
Student Success
• Prior Learning Assessment &
Convenience
• Academic Quality & Career
Advancement
UT System of Higher Education
Honors College
Applies to all
University College
College of
Adult
Professionals
• Experiential Learning
• Flipped Classrooms &
Coaching
• Student-Centeredness
• Beautiful Campus
• Elegant Online
Experience
UTXNET World Campus
Graduate College
UT System of Higher Education
MEDICINE
ENGINEERING
PHARMACY
SCIENCE & MATH
HEALTH SCIENCES
LAW
COMMUNICATION
CRIMINAL JUSTICE &
HUMAN SERVICES
HONORS COLLEGE
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
COLLEGE OF ADULT
PROFESSIONALS
UTXNET WORLD
CAMPUS
GRADUATE
COLLEGE
NURSING
BUSINESS
EDUCATION
HUMANITIES &
SOCIAL SCIENCES
VISUAL AND
PERFORMING ARTS
UT System of Higher Education
RESEARCH
• Remain Current in
Disciplines
• Advance the Body of
Knowledge
• Solve Community Problems
• Economic Development
UT System of Higher Education
Research Teams of the Future
Mathematicians
Physicians
Psychologists
Sociologists
Physicists
Interdisciplinary
Research
Dentists
Nurses
Engineers
Economists
Interdisciplinary Schools
• Green Chemistry &
Advanced Renewable
Energy
• Biomarkers and
Advanced Simulation
• Healthcare Business
Enterprise & Innovation
UT System of Higher Education
SERVICE
• Patient Care - UTMC
• Toledo Early College
High School
• Toledo Museum of Art
• Economic Development
• Learning Assessment
UT 2012
Our Mission
The mission of The University of Toledo is to
improve the human condition; to advance
knowledge through excellence in learning,
discovery and engagement; and to serve as a
diverse, student-centered public metropolitan
research university.
Our Vision
The University of Toledo is a transformative force
in the world. As such, the University will become a
thriving student-centered, community-engaged,
comprehensive research university known for its
strong liberal arts core and multiple nationally
ranked professional colleges, and distinguished by
exceptional strength in science and technology.
Our core values do not change.
Compassion, Professionalism
and Respect
Engagement, Outreach
and Service
Excellence, Focus
And Innovation
CORE
VALUES
Discovery, Learning
and Communication
Diversity, Integrity and
Teamwork
Wellness, Healing and
Safety
Get from UT 2012
to UT 2017
The Future of Higher Education
• More demand for
graduates.
• Less public financial
resources.
• More intense competition.
• Fewer tuition rate
increases.
• More enabling
technologies.
• Fewer non-core programs.
• More international
experiences.
Overarching Strategic Priorities
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Academic Quality
Student Experience
Teamwork and Empowerment
Student Success and Learning Assessment
Distinction and Reputation
Efficiency, Focus, and Innovation
Problem Solving for Our Community
Honors College
The Reality
Solution
UT’s brand is not as strong as
it needs to be. Only “marketleading colleges and
universities” will survive in the
21st century.
1. Name, enhance, market, and enlarge UT’s Honors
enjoy the same competitive
advantage in the marketplace
that students once enjoyed
with just an undergraduate
degree.
2. Feature experiential
(internship, co-op,
Richardlearning
A. DeMillo
College to create a recognizable high-quality sub-brand
within The University of Toledo and thereby enlarge
the pipeline of well-prepared students into the
university’s wide array of undergraduate and advanced
degree programs. Encourage honors students to
complete their undergraduate degree in three years and
begin advanced degree programs at the beginning of
their fourth year.
“Institutions without an overwhelming brand
Students inadvantage
the 21st centuryhave no chance of success...”
need an advanced degree to
service learning, study abroad, undergraduate research,
simulation) for all students to enhance student learning
and employability. Partner with Digerati to increase
experiential learning capacity and support.
The Reality
Solution
UTXNET
World Campus
3. Create UTXNET World Campus to
New digital technologies are
enabling new and potentially
advance the branding and delivery of web-based
more cost-effective models of
educational content, the effective use of academic
higher education. New entrants
technology in all learning environments, and the
that use these technologies are
awarding of competency-based
college
“The rush
to define the twenty-first-century
university
iscredit.
driven
threatening
traditional
Partner with Apple Higher Education to achieve
universities.
by a combination of political and economic factors. It is
fueled,
all,
Students in
the 21st above
century need
an international education to
compete in an increasingly global
economy, but the cost of study
abroad is prohibitive and
unrealistic for many students.
these outcomes. Engage faculty in this work.
by enabling technology curves...”
4. Use UTXNET World Campus to
Richard A. DeMillo
increase the number of hybrid courses, flipped
classrooms, and international digital connections
inside and outside UT classrooms.
University College
The Reality
Solution
5. Recreate University College as a portal for prepared
Many high school graduates
and under- prepared students and team it with
are unprepared for college,
UTXNET to cost-effectively improve student success
rates.
and many are from low
socio-economic family
6. Keep
tuitionexception
and fees at current
rates in FY
14 and
“The student-centered
university
is
the
today.
In
backgrounds.
They need
discount housing to achieve strategic retention and
recruitment
goals.to succeed.”
cost-effectivethe future, no other kind
is likely
developmental work.
Clayton
Christensen
& Henry
Eyring by improving all
7. Improve
the student
experience
Enrollment is declining;
student retention and
graduation rates are low.
student “moments of truth,” starting with campus
visits, academic advising, student life, and university
traditions and campus spirit. Engage students in this
work.
“With one’s livelihood at stake, the preference of some faculty
members for disciplined-focused
scholarship over instruction
Solution
The
Reality
becomes a self-preservation mandate for all. The survivors of
8. Convert Lecturers to Assistant,
Lecturers
are
treated
as
the process expect to be paid more
while
less,
do
Associate,
andteaching
full Professors
of as
Practice
second- class faculty; they
with 3- to 5-year
renewableabsence
contracts and 9star recruits from other universities.
The greater
need a better career path.
to 12-month annual
employment
terms.
of senior professors from undergraduate
classrooms
affects
not only the quality of instruction but also its cost...The
more established and research-oriented a university becomes,
the more its instructional costs tend to grow...For students,
universities fashioned after this model are expensive and
difficult to access; they provide preparation more appropriate
to advanced study in graduate school than to the workplace.”
Clayton Christensen & Henry Eyring
The Reality
Solution
Public resources to support higher
9. Step 1 – Reduce administrative overhead.
education are declining, and the limits
Step 2 - Increase instructional productivity in all
of tuition and fee increases and student
academic units; provide additional support for
debt have
been reached.
Higher
“The
impact
of
declining
tax
revenues
on academic
increased teaching
productivity resources
(e.g., TAs, academic
education’s cost structure must come
advisors, education
team teaching, new
instructional
down while outcomes
that severe
are
has
been
for
public
higher
across
the
important to students and funding
technologies).
agencies must
improve. UT must
country...American
higher education
is in adegree
world
of hurt;
Step 3 - Streamline
programs
and course
reduce its cost structure by
offerings; reengineer academic administration,
the$36pain
is increasing in intensity,
and it
high time
approximately
million.
student affairs,
andisacademic
supportfor
functions.
Step 4 - Implement
a college incentive funding
our
hundred-year-old
paradigm
to
change.”
UT does not have the financial
formula for capital funds.
resources to support the comprehensive
Step 5 - Adopt a new faculty hiring plan to account
research university model in all areas.
for facultyDan
retirements
over
the next
few years.
Angel and
Terry
Connelly
As a result of trying to do so, staffing
Step 6 - Use technology to enable student selfand systems are inadequate throughout
service.
the university.
The Reality
Solution
10. Divide JHCOEHSHS into three colleges:
UT academic structures are
Education, Health Sciences, and Criminal Justice
“To
survive
increasing
competition,
need
not optimally designed to
and Humanmost
Services.universities
Create a new college:
College
of Communication.
respond
changing
to betoboth
more student focused
and more narrowly
conditions
in in
thetheir
external
focused
academic offerings.”
Make institutional investments in three
interdisciplinary schools: Healthcare Business
environment. Morale in
& Henry
Eyring
Enterprise & Innovation,
Green Chemistry
and
some parts of the university Clayton Christensen
Advanced Renewable Energy, and Biomarkers and
Advanced Simulation.
is low.
Use University Council to foster a new spirit of
university teamwork and to improve responsiveness
to the needs of internal and external stakeholders.
The big splash created by these 10
strategies is:
1. UT will have a nationally known and distinguished
undergraduate honors college with large numbers of wellprepared students who earn their under-graduate degrees in
three years and their advanced degrees in accelerated
timeframes, which greatly enhances their chances of success in
the job market.
2. UT will have grown its graduate and professional programs.
3. UT will have used new academic technologies and new
pedagogies to improve learning and the career potential
of all students. The overall student experience will be better.
4. UT will have lowered the cost of higher education and
created a sustainable economic model that provides sufficient
resources to ensure academic quality.
Making UT 2017
a Reality
fail
Most organizations
NOT because they don’t have a good
strategic plan;
they fail because they don’t
EXECUTE
their plan well.
Key Metrics
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Total Enrollment
Retention %
Graduation %
Student Learning
Student Satisfaction
Job Placement %
Alumni Satisfaction
Employer Satisfaction
Funded Research
Operating Income $
Operating Margin %
Philanthropy $
Community Outcomes
“We will always endeavor
to transmit our university
greater
in honor and esteem,
better
and more glorious
than it was transmitted to us.”
UT Student Pledge in the Early 1900s
Appendix
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strategic Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats
S W
O T
SWOT ANALYSIS
Summary of Strengths
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wide array of academic programs.
Strong faculty in many programs.
STEMM programs are perceived to be
strong.
Law is perceived to be strong.
Honors program is perceived to be
strong.
Perceived contributor to regional
economic development.
Pipeline from undergraduate to
graduate programs.
Job ready graduates of the professional
programs.
Community engagement.
S W
O T
SWOT ANALYSIS
Summary of Weaknesses
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
UT is perceived by many to be a midtier university.
Business programs are perceived to be
inferior to others.
Education programs are perceived to
be inferior to others.
Performing arts programs are
perceived to be inferior to others.
Undergraduate programs are perceived
to be inferior to graduate programs.
Student retention is low.
Student debt is high.
Academic programs are thinly staffed.
S W
O T
SWOT ANALYSIS
Summary of Opportunities
•
•
•
•
•
Stronger relationships with community
colleges.
Post-graduate certificate programs.
Technological and pedagogical
innovations.
For-profit higher education entities
have not yet achieved high brand
value.
University relationships with external
entities:
– Toledo Public Schools; Early
College High School
– State and Federal Government
– Regional Employers
– Toledo Museum of Art
S W
O T
SWOT ANALYSIS
Summary of Threats
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
State funding is decreasing.
Federal financial aid is at risk.
Traditional research funding is
decreasing.
Tuition and fee increases are at their
limits.
Flagship universities are thriving;
regional state universities are at risk.
NW Ohio is struggling economically.
For-profit and free higher education is
growing.
Some neighborhoods around campus
are not safe.
Changing perception of the value of a
college degree.
S W
O T