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Academic Profile - Strategic Plan
The Graduate College embraces the University’s Strategic Plans and details its goals within the university’s five priority areas.
Goal 1: Strengthen graduate education to enhance student success at Iowa State University and beyond.
Strategies:
- Participate in external program review activities mandated by the Board of Regents.
- Develop and disseminate survey data on time to degree, retention, graduation rates, assistantships, etc. to assist programs in assessing student success.
- Develop and disseminate placement data or reports to assess student outcomes in graduate programs.
- Help programs develop appropriate diversity plans in their graduate programs.
- Increase support for programs to ensure a diverse, accessible Graduate College (e.g., Miller Fellowship, AGEP, George Washington Carver Doctoral Fellowship, Graduate College Mentoring Program).
Benchmarks:
- By 2010, over 80% of all graduate students who enter in a cohort year should finish their degree objective.
- By 2010, 8.5% Board of Regents-mandated enrollment of US ethnic minority students should be enrolled at the graduate level.
- By Fall 2007, there should be 25 George Washington Carver Doctoral Fellows.
- By Fall 2007, there will be 25 AGEP Doctoral Fellows.
- By 2010, 80% of entering doctoral underrepresented students will receive their degrees within 8 years.
- By 2010, 85% of entering underrepresented master’s students will receive their degrees within 2½ years.
Goal 2: Increase the number of graduate programs that are among the very best, particularly in the university’s areas of excellence
Strategies:
- Participate in program review of programs and assist programs in recruiting and retaining the very best graduate students.
- Enhance graduate assistant financial support—3-year tuition funding—full funding for PhD assistants through a combination of grant, department, and central university tuition support.
- Encourage development of interdepartmental programs and assure appropriate funding levels for student support in these programs.
Benchmarks:
- All eligble PhD graduate assistants have fully funded tuition by Fall 2006.
- 25% of all graduate students enrolled in interdepartmental programs by 2010.
- Increase funding to interdepartmental programs by 50% by 2010 from central administration sources.
- Enroll 5,000 graduate students by 2010.
Goal 3: Translate discoveries into viable technologies, products, and services to strengthen the economies of Iowa and the world.
Strategies:
- Provide newer and better ways to let dissertation and thesis discoveries reach their audiences—work with library to allow access to student work quicker through electronic submission of theses and dissertations.
Benchmarks:
- 90% of all master’s and phd students submitting theses and dissertation electronically by Fall 2006 so that they are made available to researchers in more timely way.
- 100% of all master’s and phd students submitting theses and dissertation electronically by Fall 2007 so that they are made available to researchers in more timely way.
Goal 4: Elevate the state’s appeal as a place to live, learn, work, and play.
Strategies:
- Work with Graduate Deans at the other regents universities to consider graduate program issues collaboratively.
- Make efforts to actively retain and recruit Iowa State undergraduates as well as actively recruit students from other Iowa undergraduate institutions.
- Encourage programs to offer more life-long learning opportunities for Iowans through distance graduate courses and programs.
- Encourage more programs to offer more graduate-level certificates and professional growth learning experiences at the graduate level.
Benchmarks:
- Increase enrollment of Iowa residents by 5% by 2008.
- At least one new graduate course, graduate certificate, or other program developed especially for Iowa adult students introduced at the graduate level each year until 2010.
Goal 5: Ensure that the university is a great place to learn and work.
Strategies:
- Move the Graduate College from largely a paper-based monitoring unit to a more efficient and more electronically-enhanced service group through:
- Submission of theses and dissertations electronically (ETD project).
- Revision of electronic application to add purpose statements and electronic letters of recommendation, making available electronic applications for ISU students, and creation of electronic admissions workflow for evaluating and recommending all graduate students for admission.
- Electronic forms submissions with approvals and routing processing for graduate students forms—committee appointments, Program of Study, preliminary and final examination requests and reports, and graduation approval forms.
- Hire IT personnel to assist with making the Graduate College less paper-intensive.
- Enhance visibility of graduate education on campus by working with college deans in collaborative fashion to more visibly feature graduate education.
Benchmarks:
- 90% of theses and dissertations to be submitted electronically by Fall 2006.
- 100% of theses and dissertations to be submitted electronically by Fall 2007.
- 80% of all applicants apply to the university electronically by Fall 2006.
- 80% of all forms to be submitted electronically to the Graduate College by Fall 2010.
Return to the Academic Profile Table of Contents.
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