October 1, 2004
To: Chairs / Directors, Academic-Support Department Heads,
Members of Executive Council, College Heads
From: Amit Chakma, Vice-President, Academic & Provost
Subject: Sixth-Decade Planning
Senate (December 15/03) and the Board of Governors (February 3/04) approved the Sixth-Decade Framework submitted by the Senate Long Range Planning Committee (SLRP). The next step entails the preparation of planning documents. Accordingly, I am requesting academic and academic-support units to begin this work, if they have not already done so.
The process should start with a self-study in each unit, identifying strengths, challenges and opportunities that respond to UW aspirations to achieve academic excellence. Since most of our academic units have already participated in the first cycle of the undergraduate program review process, the self-study should build on work already done in order to minimize duplication of effort. This work should inform the development of the Sixth-Decade Plan.
The attached templates for academic and academic-support units are intended to simplify the process and provide further guidance. The templates will also allow SLRP to review submissions in a consistent manner.
Draft plans in academic units should be reviewed by external advisory panels appointed by the Dean in consultation with me; a Faculty may decide to have clusters of academic programs reviewed by a single panel. The draft plan together with the report of the external advisory panel should then be submitted to SLRP by the Dean. Draft plans in academic-support units should be reviewed by the appropriate Associate Provost or Vice-President before being submitted to SLRP. The SLRP deadline for all submissions is April 30, 2005 .
My thanks to all concerned for their cooperation and diligence.
Pursuit of Excellence. The Plan should address the following:
Provide an overall ranking of the academic unit relative to peers in Canada and USA, using benchmarks appropriate for the discipline and identifying the benchmarks, which could include research funding, graduate student/faculty ratio, quality of students, research impact factors, and any others that are appropriate.
Identify the peer group and the top three in the peer group and other institutions closer in ranking to your own unit.
State specific goals of the unit with a clear indication of where the academic unit should be by 2017 in terms of its ranking among peer institutions.
Describe five- and ten-year plans to achieve the goals above.
Specify your plans for the recruitment of the best faculty through national and international searches and for the retention of top-performing faculty through tangible and intangible recognition of excellence in teaching, research / scholarship, and service.
Describe how application of the highest standards in faculty recruitment, annual performance reviews, and tenure and promotion decisions will be implemented in your unit.
Describe your unit’s strategy for attracting students of the highest calibre, graduate and undergraduate, from Canada and abroad in partnership with recruitment teams in the Registrar’s Office and the Graduate Student Office and other units in the University.
What differentiates your academic programs from similar programs offered by peer institutions in Ontario , Canada and North America ?
Describe how your unit plans to create a stimulating, varied and challenging environment to students, conducive to the successful completion of their programs.
Describe your plans to achieve global leadership in your undergraduate and graduate co-operative and/or regular education programs.
Describe planning measures (academic and administrative), as well as academic and budgetary decisions you will undertake to support academic excellence under the following scenarios:
Status quo budget with no new resources
Growth budget. Describe your plan to secure incremental resources (e.g. enrolment growth, cost recovery programs etc.)
Reduced budget
Significant non regular budget additions (e.g. private gift, major research facility, library collections, etc.) and prospects of securing such.
Indicate how your unit plans to realize potential synergies arising out of collaboration and academic integration with the affiliated universities/colleges and other units on campus.
Relevance. The Framework document reiterates UW’s desire to maximize its academic and societal relevance. In light of the above, please address the following:
Why should undergraduate and graduate students prefer your academic discipline at UW?
How would you make your programs even more attractive to top students from Canada and abroad?
Describe your plans to introduce new academic programs or modify existing programs in response to long-term societal needs and to reduce or eliminate programs.
Describe your plans for providing service to society through cultural enrichment and knowledge transfer
Outline your plans to work collaboratively with all UW constituencies, including public and private sectors, and alumni, to advance UW’s mission.
Resources. Recognizing that pursuit of excellence requires resources, UW will continue to strive to achieve financial stability through diversification of income sources, vigorous fundraising efforts and the building of endowments. To this end, please address the following:
What are the resource requirements for your unit to meet its aspirations to achieve excellence?
Faculty
Staff
Facilities
Scholarships etc.
How do you propose to redeploy existing resources in support of your academic plan?
How can your unit help UW diversify its sources of income? Please describe your unit’s development and alumni relations plans.
Academic support units play an integral role in supporting UW's academic mission. Accordingly, it is important for these units to develop plans that are consistent with UW academic aspirations.
Relevance. In answering questions 1-4, consider, in particular, the support your unit provides to students (undergraduate, graduate, domestic, international), faculty, staff and other units.
What responsibilities/tasks are core/central to your unit?
What support does your unit provide to the academic enterprise?
How does this work add value to the academic enterprise?
What work does your unit do not directly related to the academic enterprise?
Strengths. Describe the strengths of your unit in the following areas:
Staff
Systems (automated, manual, process)
Working environment/working relationships
Leadership
Weaknesses. Describe the weaknesses of your unit in the following areas:
Staff
Systems (automated, manual, process)
Working environment/working relationships
Leadership
Opportunities
What is peripheral to your unit’s core functions that might be discontinued or done elsewhere?
How can your unit streamline administrative practices by reducing high volume, low value activities so that it can focus on high value activities?
How might your unit re-deploy existing resources to better deliver support?
What changes would have to occur to allow your unit to better fulfill its mission both within the unit and elsewhere in the university?
Threats
Other than resources, what prevents your unit from getting the job done?
How might this be remedied?
If lack of resources is impeding your unit’s success, what is needed to remedy the situation?
Excellence
What does “pursuit of excellence “mean to your unit?
What does “service-oriented culture” mean to your unit?
How does the work of your department reflect “pursuit of excellence” and “service-oriented culture” and how will you engender the highest performance standards necessary to achieve these objectives?
Overall. If there were to be one or two key changes to allow your unit to be more effective related to the considerations above, what would they be?