strategic planning and management in education

Build plans, manage results, & achieve more

Learn about the AchieveIt Difference vs other similar tools

We're more than just a software, we're a true partner

• Strategic Planning
• Business Transformation
• Enterprise PMO
• Project + Program Management
• Operational Planning + Execution
• Integrated Plan Management
• Federal Government
• State + Local Government
• Banks + Credit Unions
• Manufacturing

Best practices on strategy, planning, & execution

Real-world examples of organizations that have trusted AchieveIt

Ready-to-use templates to take planning to the next level

Research-driven guides to help your strategy excel

Pre-recorded & upcoming webinars on everything strategy & planning

• *NEW!* Podcast 🎙️

The Importance of Strategic Planning in Education

RELATED TAGS:

Strategic planning is a method used in various industries to deliberately guide decision-making. In education, strategic planning provides leaders with guidance to keep the institution operating, carry out its missions and comply with regulations. Educational strategic planning focuses on the future of a college or university, providing an intentional way to reflect on performance and determine where to implement initiatives to make positive changes for the future.

To create effective university strategic plans, administrators and stakeholders must understand the ins and outs of how they work and how they can apply them.

In This Article

• Lack of Ownership
• Poor Strategic Alignment
• Poor Communication
• Slow Plan Adoption
• Improve Efficiency
• Engage Stakeholders and the Community
• Form a Focus
• Plan a Future
• Test Your Hypotheses
• Use Specific Language
• Make Implementation a Priority
• Hold Team Members Accountable

Transform Strategic Planning and Execution Within Your Education Institution With AchieveIt

The challenges of strategic planning in education.

Universities and colleges face several pressures and challenges that can complicate strategic planning in educational environments. Understanding some of these challenges can help you overcome them to create an impactful approach.

1. Lack of Ownership

While strategic plans involve feedback and participation from all of your institution’s departments and entities, you should limit ownership of the plan and documentation to one person. Without explicit ownership over the strategic plan, initiatives are more likely to be lost, forgotten or overlooked. With one person in charge, your school is more likely to achieve success.

2. Poor Strategic Alignment

Alignment and representation across your university are crucial to success. Universities and colleges often experience a lack of strategic alignment because the church and state divisions typically have different goals for schools. These clashing perspectives lead to poor strategic alignment and a stand-still in decision-making.

3. Poor Communication

Many educational institutions also struggle with strategic planning due to poor organizational communication. Effectively implementing a strategic plan requires institutional-wide teamwork. Poor communication significantly increases the difficulty of agreeing upon and executing effective solutions and setting attainable goals.

4. Slow Plan Adoption

With a significant focus on innovation and growth, universities may make numerous changes in a year. Constant changes often lead to low motivation to adopt new plans. The longer your teams take to implement a strategic plan, the more likely it is to become outdated. When this situation happens, the plan becomes irrelevant to your current processes.

Why Education Institutions Need Strategic Planning

Despite the inherent challenges, educational strategic planning is necessary for a successful institution operation. A strategic plan can help you improve several aspects of your educational institution through intentional goal-setting and initiative implementation. Strategic planning for colleges and universities helps students, staff and the community progress toward a better future.

Here are a few reasons you should use strategic planning in education:

1. Improve Efficiency

One of the biggest reasons to begin strategic planning is the opportunity for improved efficiency in numerous areas of your organization. The challenges of educational planning often lead to a lack of efficiency. Strategic planning for schools allows leaders to determine more effective ways to streamline processes.

For example, your decision-making teams may take significant time to agree on new policies or procedures. Strategic planning helps your institution use time more efficiently because it allows you to form decision-making strategies.

Improved efficiency also results in better cost-effectiveness. The less time is wasted, the more money you’ll save, especially over time.

2. Engage Stakeholders and the Community

Strategic planning involves more people than only the primary decision-makers — your planning should involve your community and stakeholders. Feedback from these entities can help you develop a more beneficial and strategically targeted plan based on what these entities want or need from you. Engaging the stakeholders and community also shows you value their input and want to create an environment where they want to be.

3. Form a Focus

Determining a focus for the school year ahead can be challenging without clear objectives. Without focus, your institution will struggle to grow and attract students and staff. For example, you may have vague expectations for the upcoming school year, which prevents decisions and progress from being made. A strategic plan allows you to determine your goals and focus for the upcoming year and beyond while also helping you track your progress.

4. Plan a Future

Strategic planning is ideal for planning a successful future for your institution. Developing a plan for your future helps ensure your school can grow and continue benefiting from its offerings. Rather than being unprepared for the next year and future school years, you can effectively strategize to make the most of your school year.

Strategic Planning Tips for Education Institutions

While every school’s strategic plan will look different depending on its goals and resources, the strategic planning process is often similar for colleges and universities. Explore a few tips for educational strategic planning to help you get started:

1. Test Your Hypotheses

You’re ultimately hypothesizing the outcome when you set initiatives in your strategic plan. These hypotheses are often based on assumptions, though it’s typically best to experiment to determine what would work and what may not. For example, if you ask your faculty to begin submitting weekly reports, conduct a quick test to ensure they can do so and have time to do so.

2. Use Specific Language

Using vague or wordy language increases the risk of confusion and the possibility of initiatives being misunderstood and ignored. Swapping out complicated words for simpler, more specific words can help ensure everyone understands your plan. It can help to have someone review the language you use to ensure nothing is confusing and everyone is on the same page.

3. Make Implementation a Priority

Because schools involve numerous departments and divisions, implementing a plan can be difficult without prioritization . Make your plan a priority to ensure it’s properly implemented. Doing so is often easiest when leaders promote and require implementation.

4. Hold Team Members Accountable

Another way to make university strategic plans stick is by holding team members accountable. School performance management software allows you to track reports and other strategy-related information to determine who’s completing their duties so you can keep them accountable.

Educational institutions require significant planning to ensure a successful school year. Strategic planning software for higher education can help you focus your strategy despite your institution’s challenges. Software like AchieveIt has features that help your team turn ideas into actions.

A few things you can do with our software include:

• Solve common implementation challenges: AchieveIt makes connecting members of your team and various initiatives easy. You can track projects, keep everyone on the same page and quickly send updates.
• Gain comprehensive visibility: Our platform lets you see every initiative in real time, providing comprehensive visibility over progress.
• Consult with our experts: Our strategic plan experts help you execute your plan effectively. Draw on our expertise for inspiration or customize one of our templates to create your plan.

Let’s actually do this. Request a demo of AchieveIt to see what we can do for you today.

Meet the Author   Chelsea Damon

Chelsea Damon is the Content Strategist at AchieveIt. When she's not publishing content about strategy execution, you'll likely find her outside or baking bread.

Related Posts

Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement in Higher Education Institutions

Strategic Plan vs. Business Plan: What’s the Difference? 

Is Your Strategic Plan Actually an Operational Plan?

Hear directly from our awesome customers

See first-hand why the world's best leaders use AchieveIt

See AchieveIt in action 

Stay in the know. Join our community of subscribers.

Subscribe for plan execution content sent directly to your inbox.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Download Free PDF

Strategic Planning in Education: A Systematic Review

Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies

Problems in the educational system must be addressed immediately given their adverse effects on school operations. In dealing with these matters, strategic planning plays a vital role in creating a specific plan of action to overcome organizational issues. Thus, this systematic review explored the various literature on strategic planning in education through the PRISMA framework. Studies included in this review are focused on the challenges, processes, and impact of strategic planning in educational institutions written in the English language and conducted between 2020 and 2022 from Google Scholar. Out of 131 records identified from database searching, fifteen articles from eight countries revealed three themes for the challenges of strategic planning, namely: lack of knowledge and skills in strategic planning, improper conduct of strategic planning, and low level of stakeholder involvement in strategic planning. The analysis also showed three themes for the process of strategic pl...

Strategic Planning in Higher Education – Best Practices and Benchmarking

• July 16, 2014
• Topic: Higher Education
• Resource type: Insights Blog

Executive Summary and Key Findings

Introduction.

This report examines best practices in strategic planning at higher education institutions and profiles the strategic plans and planning processes in place at five specific institutions. The discussion has been informed by three areas of concern common to many higher education institutions: the need to manage changing funding models, the need to seek more sustainable support from key constituents, and the need to improve student recruitment and retention.

The report comprises the following two sections:

• Section 1 examines best practices in strategic planning for higher education institutions. We discuss common pitfalls and guiding principles for gaining buy‐in, implementing the plan, and financial planning. In addition, we profile two successful strategic planning processes, including the timeline, participants, procedures, and lessons learned.
• Section 2 profiles the strategic plans of five specific institutions and identifies common trends among them. We examine these institutions’ strategic planning processes and strategic goals and initiatives, as well as implementation and monitoring methods.

Key Findings

Planning process.

• Strategic planning involves 1) formulating goals, objectives, and action steps, and 2) monitoring implementation, tracking progress, and revising the plan . During the initial planning process, conducting comprehensive institutional research is crucial to determine appropriate goals and objectives.
• Involving stakeholders in the planning process can help build broad support among diverse constituents . In particular, the planning committee benefits from members that represent a variety of institutional roles, demographic groups, and campus units. In addition to building buy‐in, a diverse committee helps to anticipate the future cross‐unit coordination necessary to carry out goals and objectives.
• At Morgan State University, listening sessions, town hall meetings, and a regularly updated website promoted involvement from a wide swath of the campus community.
• The profiled institutions have strategic plan cycles that range from five to 11 years , based on planning processes that lasted eight to 16 months . Some consultants note that short plan cycles can better address unforeseen challenges. For instance, each year, the College of William & Mary (W&M) revises its five‐year strategic framework, produces a budget that reflects strategic priorities, and outlines implementation steps for the coming year.
•  A short plan cycle may also mitigate the tendency to front‐load or back‐load goals during the planning process. These pitfalls can lead to unrealistic timelines and/or a loss of momentum.
• Aligning the budget with the strategic plan helps increase the plan’s impact . For instance, redesigning an institution’s budget request form to include strategic importance can ensure that key initiatives are implemented. W&M provides an example of such a budget process. By building wide‐ranging support, establishing institutional priorities, and setting evidence‐based metrics, the strategic planning process can also help support fundraising campaigns.

Goals and Initiatives

• Ensuring students’ academic success, diversifying financial resources, improving infrastructure and operations, promoting community engagement, and developing institutional branding emerged as common strategic goals among the five profiled institutions. Related initiatives include increasing enrollment and retention, improving alumni engagement, building sustainable facilities, establishing relationships with community organizations, and creating a marketing strategy.
• The strategic plans contain five to six goals, with 19 to 31 associated initiatives . The number of initiatives corresponding to each goal varies widely, from one to 11, depending on the scope of the goal. Additional initiatives include projects related to the internationalization of curricular offerings, campus safety, and experiential learning.

Implementation and Monitoring

• The plan should answer the question “How will we know if we reach this goal, and how will we prove it?” A comprehensive implementation plan describes, for each objective, action steps, anticipated outcomes, criteria of success, a timeline, benchmark indicator(s), assessment method, necessary resources, and the person or office accountable. Linking strategic accomplishments to administrators’ performance evaluations may also help to incentivize implementation.
• Reporting annually on the institution’s progress can sustain momentum after the plan has been approved . Indiana State University holds an annual stakeholders conference for this purpose. W&M and North Carolina A&T State University use annual scorecards to report performance on 20‐26 key metrics. Including a mix of short‐, middle‐, and long‐term objectives in the plan also improves motivation by creating opportunities for measured success early on.
• Benchmark indicators vary widely depending on the specific outcome desired . The majority of benchmark indicators are items such as retention rates, number of students accessing services, U.S. News rankings, or the dollar amount of research grants. Additional assessment methods may involve reviewing policies and procedures, or analyzing the results of surveys and focus groups. In these cases, the indicators may be revised internal documents or improved survey ratings.
• In addition to tracking institutional progress on benchmark indicators, it can be useful to monitor the status of individual implementation steps . For instance, W&M groups all implementation steps into one of four possible categories: “not yet started, underway, completed, [or] adopted into continuing practice.” This method guarantees that no steps get “lost” in the implementation process.

Download the full report

Related Content

Communicating the impacts of your research.

• Grants for Higher Ed Institutions , Higher Education
• Reports & Briefs

5 Student Retention Strategies in Higher Education

• Higher Education , Student Success

Related Tags

• Higher Education

Related Research & Insights

A Year in Review: How Large Universities Evolved in 2024

• Higher Ed Trends , Higher Education

Research & Insights

Receive industry-leading insights directly in your inbox.

If you have difficulty accessing any part of this website or the products or services offered by Hanover Research, please contact us at [email protected] for support.

Become a client

Access the best custom research to help hit your organization’s goals . Request your custom consult below and a member of our team will be in touch.

Have questions? Please visit our contact page .

Let us come to you!

Receive industry insights directly in your inbox.

Our newsletters are packed with helpful tips, industry guides, best practices, case studies, and more. Enter your email address below to opt in:

Everything you need to deliver your plans, manage strategy and report progress.

• Customizable plan structure
• Automated and on-demand progress reports
• Save time with AI features

Centralize, analyze and visualize your performance data. Align performance measures with plans.

• Centralized performance data
• Scorecards and interactive dashboards
• Slice and dice for new insights

Manage, deliver, and communicate projects. Align projects with plans for end-to-end visibility and reporting.

• Gantt view of projects, tasks and dependencies
• Interactive maps and dashboards
• Plan alignment and reporting

Share your strategy story with external stakeholders via customizable public dashboards.

• Progress dashboards with roll-up reporting
• Matched to your branding
• Fully ADA Compliant

Strategy and Performance Management Integrations Learn More

Strategic Planning

7 reasons why schools need strategic planning.

By Mary King

20 march 2023.

• 1 1. A strategic plan articulates a shared vision, mission and values
• 2 2. A strategic plan effectively organizes schools, staff, and time
• 3 3. A strategic plan defines how success is measured
• 4 4. A strategic plan helps with decision-making, responsiveness, and innovation
• 5 5. A strategic plan increases communication and engagement
• 6 6. A strategic plan keeps everyone in a school—from teachers to administrators—connected
• 7 7. The best reason of all for strategic planning comes back to every great school’s number one priority: students
• 8 Download the guide ↓

The past three years have been disruptive for every sector. For educational institutions, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone–from staff and teachers, to the students who had to switch to a new modality of learning, to the parents supporting them. Strategic planning in education has revealed itself to be a very important part of recovering. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the COVID-19 pandemic forced nearly 55 million children home in the US alone—and at least 1.4 billion children out of school or child care across the globe. Higher education institutions have been profoundly financially impacted , and both the learning experience and mental wellbeing of the students has been negatively affected.

While every educational institution was impacted by this, some schools were more prepared than others to face the unique challenges COVID-19 posed–those schools who had previously established strategic plans were better prepared to navigate the pandemic than those without.

It’s clear to us: Schools that embrace a great strategic plan, and commit to strategic planning in education, have clear advantages over schools that don’t.

We’re going to talk about some of those advantages now, look at some examples of strategic planning in education, and give 7 reasons for why every school with a vision of excellence for their students should embrace a strategic planning process for schools. Whether it’s getting back on track after a hugely disruptive, global event like COVID-19, identifying the most important strategies to improve student outcomes, or increasing staff engagement, all schools benefit from strategic planning and strategic plan implementation.

1. A strategic plan articulates a shared vision, mission and values

The ability for schools to collaborate, share, and communicate short and long term goals is a critical part of moving plans forward in line with a vision, mission, and values. Schools benefit from a well communicated and executed strategic plan that keeps everyone informed of their strategic goals, and how their actions are contributing to the achievement of these goals. This enables parents, staff, community members, and stakeholders to work towards a common vision.

A major additional benefit of strategic planning in education is that it provides an opportunity for active employee engagement across an organization. When it comes to strategic planning for educational institutions, that benefit remains present. Research suggests that a leading cause for employee discontent (in general, but especially in the public sector) is that employees don’t understand how the work they’re doing helps their greater organization.

If the school is able to clearly define and remind employees and stakeholders of the shared vision, employees are more likely to feel connected to the work they are doing within that organization. Whether that work is educating students, organizing reports, performing critical administrative duties, or coordinating the process of standardized testing, everyone plays a part in a student’s success.

2. A strategic plan effectively organizes schools, staff, and time

We understand that schools–whether they are elementary schools, high schools, or higher education institutions– are complex institutions, with boards, committees, districts, unions, and many different types of stakeholders involved. Because the organizations themselves are so large, and plans are often multi-year, complex entities built up by multiple stakeholders and workers, struggles with organization and effective time management are common.

Envisio provides strategic planning software for educational institutions , and because Envisio works exclusively with the public sector, we understand the unique, complex, and often large scale planning needs of public sector organizations.

“I see Envisio very much as a focusing tool as I work with my team. If you’ve got great people, your primary job is not to get in their way […] I can stay on top of performance in a way that is really unobtrusive, and I don’t have to necessarily interact directly with an individual to get a sense of what’s going on. I can stay abreast of the action plans in the communications department or the action plans in a particular school. If we’re missing the mark on a key performance measure, I can focus more time on having the right conversations.” – Peter Hilts, Chief Education Officer for District 49

3. A strategic plan defines how success is measured

In order to achieve success, it’s important to know what success means, and where to take action first. It is difficult to get a strategic action plan underway without a firm understanding of what problems you’re wanting to solve. When it comes to strategic planning in the public sector, determining clear benchmarks for success is especially important, because the goals are often a combination of abstract, impact-based metrics, and concrete, output-based goals.

Different types of educational institutions are going to have different challenges, and different metrics of success: the educational strategic plans of a public school board district are going to look a lot different from a college or university! The shared reality is that every school with a strategy is better able to monitor its progress toward key outcomes and evaluate where and how it may have gotten off track. Using a strategy implementation software like Envisio can help with measuring success.

At Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED), in Portage County, Ohio, they are measuring success across six pillars, with forty two strategic initiatives . Many of their strategic plan elements (goals, strategies, and actions) include promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion for their students, staff, and employees. Being a major medical research university that is training future medical professionals, diversity, equity, and inclusivity is a critical—and practical—metric! Some of the performance measures that NEOMED tracks include gender demographics, and actionable items towards decreasing disability stigma as part of their Strategic Plan: Creating Transformational Leaders Dashboard .

No matter what your benchmark for “success” is—be it a more impact-focused concept such as “be more welcoming” or more concretely articulated in output terms such as “create a low-cost tutoring center using the library after school”, your strategic plan will provide you with the steps to make get that success underway, and stay on track.

4. A strategic plan helps with decision-making, responsiveness, and innovation

A strategic plan helps educational institutions remain agile during times of change, and also helps them better define what they intend to achieve when it comes to their student success objectives and their greater organizational goals. With a strategic plan in place, educational institutions have a roadmap which they can use to track, evaluate, and modify plans to facilitate better governance decisions and provide clearer direction for the future of the school. This helps a school maintain a steady rhythm of progress towards their goals, and remain ahead of the curve–both in terms of educational innovation, and when (not if) a disruptive change occurs.

“It’s difficult, because you’re trying to help students prepare for the future – to prepare for jobs that might not exist yet. You’re trying to develop educators and an education that gives them the skills to think critically.” – Dr. Alison Gillespie, the Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning with White Bear Lake Area School District (WBLAS) in Ramsey County, Minnesota

White Bear Lake Area School District (WBLAS), MN, was able to leverage their strategic plan as a way to embrace change and turn obstacles (like COVID-19) into opportunities for success. They embraced active learning techniques and, through their strategic plan, were able to think ahead to turn disruptions into teachable moments that engaged students and staff alike.

5. A strategic plan increases communication and engagement

A strategic plan ( and particularly, one that is publicly communicated on a dashboard ) helps with overall communication and engagement. For a school board, communicating that your plans and your metrics for success are part of a larger, holistic plan, is critical to building trust with stakeholders and maintaining effective engagement—both internally, and externally.

Strategic planning in education is critical in settings where trust is paramount. Educational institutions—at all levels—work on the understanding that one group (the educators) has knowledge they can impart, share, or coax out in another group (the students). The need for a trusting relationship with the students and everyone involved in that student’s success needs to be central to a positive educational environment.

A strategic plan that can be easily found, referenced, and understood helps assure everyone involved that the school in question is aware of their plans, has them in focus, and has a plan for their shortcomings. Educational strategic planning also has the additional benefit of keeping stakeholders—such as donors—excited about the school’s vision. When it comes to fundraising, donors are more likely to support a school that has a clear vision and a strategy to make it happen.

6. A strategic plan keeps everyone in a school—from teachers to administrators—connected

A well implemented and communicated strategic plan holds all staff accountable for their actions and encourages collaboration. In educational settings, this circle of responsibility is extended out towards the community; providing excellent and accessible education is an effort that requires all hands on deck. Being able to simplify the strategic planning process and make it visible and easy to use is one way to ensure everyone stays connected.

One of the benefits of using a strategic planning software partner like Envisio is that individual action plans (from individual schools or departments) can be aligned, all the way up to a greater strategic objective. For multi-year, complex plans, such as setting a national standard of excellence, or incorporating culturally significant teachings—it’s important that teachers and staff are able to understand who is working on what, and where it fits into the greater whole.

7. The best reason of all for strategic planning comes back to every great school’s number one priority: students

Best of all, strategic planning in education provides a framework so that the most important priority of the school – students’ educational achievement – is taken care of. Having a sturdy educational strategic plan helps keep issues like digital equity , accessibility , literacy , preparation for an ever changing workforce , and social and environmental enrichment , front of mind. When the experience of the student is the priority for the school, the strategic plan becomes a collaborative effort to figure out how best to set students up for success.

Being on the same page for these goals is extremely important for schools: sound planning and communication helps ensure that stakeholders, including parents, teachers, administrators, principals, board members, and the greater community, are all striving for the same overall vision. And, when it comes to putting those plans into action, schools especially benefit from the habit of consistent performance measurement, which is something a strategic plan can help in ingraining.

For complex, multi-layered institutions such as an educational institute to successfully reach their goals—particularly after being so dramatically impacted by COVID-19—it requires not only proper management of human, budgetary, and time resources, but the creation of high-output teams, engaged and effective staff and teachers, and the consistent monitoring of progress. For schools, a strategic plan provides a north star for deepening a sense of community and knowledge, and breaks down the actionable steps to reach critical goals.

Download the guide ↓

Mary King is a professional writer and researcher based in Toronto. She comes to Envisio with a Masters Degree, where she researched the relationship between the disappearance of urban public spaces, and high level decision-making processes in local governments. For nearly a decade, Mary has worked as a community organizer, promoter, and supportive researcher in a variety of nonprofits and think-tanks, and her favorite area of focus was in connecting local artists with marginalized youth. Since 2017, her writings and research on policy, local governance, and its relationship to public art and public space has been presented at conferences internationally. She has also served as both a conference chair and lead facilitator on professional and academic conferences across Canada on how to better bridge academic research with local change-agents, policy makers, artists, and community members. Envisio’s mission of excellence and trust in the public sector maps onto Mary's interest in local government and community mobilization. She loves working at Envisio because she cares about having well organized, strategic, and transparent public organizations and local governments. Mary is also a creative writer and musician and has been supported in her practice by the Canada Council for the Arts. Her stories can be found in literary journals across Canada.

KEEP READING

Related articles you might like.

February 22, 2024

Measure What Matters: Examples of University KPIs and Performance Measures

The most commonly used university performance measures, based on our database of over 10,000 public sector KPIs. See real KPIs in action, along with descriptions and dashboards.

February 24, 2023

Secrets of Successful Strategy Implementation

Having a strategic plan is not the same as implementing one. We’re here to provide you with the secrets of successful strategy implementation, and to give you the tools necessary to move from planning to action.

December 21, 2022

A 2022 Celebration of our Envisionaries

We wanted to take a moment to celebrate the successes of our customers–from those that launched their first ever Envisio-powered public dashboards, to those that have received awards, and the people who made it all come together.

Psst! Join 10,000+ of your peers and get the best from our blog direct to your inbox.

Roughly once a week, we’ll send you the very best from our blog and other Envisio resources. We’ll be respectful of your inbox and you can unsubscribe anytime.

• First Name *
• Last Name *
• Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Ensure your strategic plan succeeds with your educational partners’ input

September 29, 2023

Sarah Mathias

Strategic planning in education – 3 keys to success.

Effective strategic planning is critical for creating positive change in your district. Among the many benefits, strategic plans align educational partners with a shared vision, mission, and values; promote productive decision-making; and help students reach their full potential.

While having a plan in place will usually improve results, strategic planning can present challenges—resulting in endless meetings, countless goal and tactic revisions, and plans that are never fully realized.

In this post, we explore strategic planning in education, touch on some K-12 planning tips, and share three best practices for making strategic planning successful in your school district. With your community’s insights and the right tools, you can win at strategic planning. Here’s how.

In this Article

• What is Strategic Planning in Education?

Strategic planning tips for K12

See thoughtexchange in action — explore the product tour, what is strategic planning in education.

Strategic planning is the process of setting goals, deciding on actions to achieve those goals, and mobilizing the resources needed to take those actions. A strategic plan describes how goals will be achieved using available resources.

While the concept initially stemmed from business practices due to people moving from the private sector into educational leadership positions, many strategic planning tools and paradigms have been adapted to focus on engagement and consensus.

This is because effective strategic planning requires community support at the school district level, both functionally and legislatively. School districts of all sizes use strategic planning to improve student outcomes and respond to changing demographics while staying within the given funding box.

In top-performing schools, leaders have proactively shifted their strategic planning process to include their educational partners. They know that their strategic plans are more likely to succeed with community support and the insights that come with community engagement.

Strategic planning is key to setting students up for success in K-12 and beyond. A solid strategic plan articulates a shared vision, mission, and values, increasing engagement while providing a framework to ensure students’ needs are met so they can reach their full potential.

Your strategic plan will benefit from your district’s input. Here are a few effective ways to engage your district in K-12 strategic planning.

Tap into your educational partners’ wisdom

Your educational partners have valuable insights. Consult teachers, staff, students , parents, and community members throughout the planning process, so your strategy aligns with their perspectives.

Whether you’re setting strategy at the district, school, or department level, consulting diverse participants will uncover unbiased insights, enhance trust and buy-in, and ensure greater success with new strategic directions.

Using ThoughtExchange , leaders can scale their engagement to efficiently and effectively include their community in their district strategic plans.

Use climate surveys

Completed by all students, parents/guardians, and staff, school climate surveys allow leaders to collect participants’ perceptions about issues like school safety, bullying, and mental health and well-being, as well as the general school environment.

ThoughtExchange Surveys get you both nuanced qualitative and robust quantitative data with instant in-depth analysis, ensuring your district understands all angles of school climate. Run surveys independently or combine them with Exchanges for faster, more accurate results.

• Collect benchmark comparisons while tracking and measuring improvements over time
• Gather quality quantitative data for reporting to state agencies or funders
• Identify outliers and trends across demographic groups

Put in some face time with town halls, meetings, or listening tours

In-person gatherings like town halls, meetings, and listening tours are effective ways to understand your educational partners’ wants and needs to ensure they line up with your strategic priorities.

When managed effectively, they give staff and other educational partners the chance to closely interact. In-person gatherings can build trust and morale, promote transparency, and help create a sense of purpose.

Leverage community engagement platforms

Community engagement software lets you streamline your community engagement initiatives. It allows education leaders to gather feedback and get tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people on the same page in just days. It also facilitates candid, collaborative community conversations that help districts realize their goals.

A comprehensive community engagement platform like ThoughtExchange allows you to integrate your strategy with your community and take decisive, supported action in less time. It provides planning, scheduling, and analysis tools to help you quickly set strategy and monitor execution.

3 keys to strategic planning success

1. get everyone on the same page.

Make sure your educational partners are on the same page by allowing them to contribute to and shape your strategy from the start. Lack of alignment about what strategy involves can hinder even the best plans. So the first step in creating a successful strategic plan is getting everyone involved to provide their insights and opinions.

Letting your people know you’re listening and that their insights affect decisions, builds trust and buy-in. Your community will be much more likely to support—not sabotage—a strategy or decision.

2. Be a collaborative leader

According to ThinkStrategic , creating a school strategic plan should always be a collaborative process. Avoiding a top-down approach and getting input from educational partners will help minimize blind spots and unlock collective intelligence. It will also ensure everyone is committed to the plan. Get all community members involved in how to make the most of the school’s possibilities.

Commit to becoming a collaborative leader and put a plan in place to ensure you can achieve that goal. That may include implementing technology that can support scaled, real-time discussion safely and inclusively for students, teachers, and other educational partners.

3. Get a holistic view of your district

Getting a holistic view of your educational partners’ wants and needs helps you build more inclusive, supported strategic plans.

Depend on a platform that meets all your engagement needs in one place—from surveys to Exchanges—and allows you to consult more people in an inclusive, anti-biased environment. You’ll reduce the time and resources spent on town halls and meetings, and reach your district’s goals more efficiently and effectively.

Engagement and survey software has been proven to contribute to more effective strategic planning in education. It empowers leaders to run and scale unbiased engagement initiatives where they can learn what the people who matter really think— explore ThoughtExchange success stories to learn more .

More from the Archives

How community involvement in schools will help students prosper.

The State of AI in Denver’s Education and Public Sectors: 4 Experts Share Their Thoughts

Leveraging ThoughtExchange’s AI-Powered Engagement Platform with New Advisor Features

Gain clarity, not clutter. Turn insights into action today.

Ready to see how the platform works?

• Deeper Engagement

Integrated AI-Analysis

• Instant Actions
• K-12 Education
• Higher Education

Events & Webinars

• Customer Stories
• Events & Webinars

Great! Before we connect you with a member of our team, tell us a bit about you!

• Product Tour
• Integrated AI Analysis
• Responsible AI & Trust
• Brand Guidelines
• Leadership Team
• Careers & Culture
• Get Started

Webinar: Bond & Levy Planning Essentials: Your Best Chance of YES

Why Is Strategic Planning & Education Management Important for Schools?

School administration requires the combined efforts of everybody involved: school leaders, educators, and their communities. All must work together to ensure students have access to adequate resources and support.

Supervision of educational strategies involves setting goals and accommodating students as they work to reach them. Educators need to know how to implement classroom procedures that will assist their students throughout their educational journeys.

What Is the Value of Data for Schools?

Student success is only possible with the right tools. Collecting and analyzing information related to student learning provides a window into how each individual’s educational career should be planned. Data for schools gives decision-makers a clearer picture of student achievement so they can set goals and manage progress.

Behavioral assessments, report cards, and other personal information can give educators insight into how a student might respond to specific policies. For schools, this means that important metrics, such as teacher performance, student progress, and graduation rates, can be assessed over time.

The Power of Strategic Planning and Education Management

Strategic planning and education management are important to schools because they bring crucial insights that allow decision-makers to adjust their student goals and provide the necessary resources to give learners the best opportunities possible.

Having a formal system for considering the long-term consequences of specific strategies and communicating expected results is essential for properly allocating a school’s resources where they’re needed.

Think Through Outcomes

Education management involves directing individual learners so they can continue to progress. With strategic planning, teachers can consider student goals and lead them in the right direction. This allows educators to consider their expectations for student outcomes.

Strategic planning and education management allow decision-makers to create useful policies and make better decisions in the moment.

Create a Shared Vision

Education management is much easier when everybody is on the same page. Making sure educators, administrators, and leadership have a clear picture of performance and pain points can go a long way toward improving student outcomes.

Strategic planning and education management also allow school administrators to create a shared vision to reinforce a sense of collective responsibility.

Leverage Available Resources

Schools are often working with limited resources. Being able to take advantage of whatever is available to drive student learning is essential for education.

Combining strategic planning with education management allows decision-makers to effectively allocate available resources to ensure student success.

Education management software makes it easier for educators to accomplish common tasks and manage student data. With Inno™ by Innovare , educators have all they need to help their students succeed.

Innovare Understands the Importance of Strategic Planning for Education Management

Strategic planning and education management require a concerted effort on the part of school administrators. This can be difficult when resources are already stretched thin. Inno™ by Innovare gives educators a valuable asset when planning and implementing their educational strategies.

Inno™ provides detailed insights that help education professionals make decisions informed by real-world data that can create a positive impact on students and their communities.

Thank you for sharing!

You may also be interested in

3 ways management software for schools can elevate education.

Having a good education is vital for improving the lives of students and their communities. For educators, this means staying on top of student progress, providing feedback, and staying in touch with families. This can become problematic when keeping track of a lot of students.

by Innovare | Jan 23, 2023 | Educational Technology

Educational Technology

Why Education Leaders and Product Designers Must Join Forces

With excitement and anticipation, it is essential that education leaders partner with product designers to ensure that the products being created are meeting the needs of their students and communities.

by Innovare | Jan 17, 2023 | Educational Technology

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. See our Privacy Policy to learn more. Accept

Three Pillars of Strategic Planning in Higher Education: A Framework for Building Sustainable Institutions Through Holistic Planning, Alignment, and Stakeholder Engagement

Table of contents.

Strategic Planning Framework: Using the Three Pillars of Holistic Thinking to Improve Higher Education Sustainability

Strategic planning in higher education has never been more critical than it is today. As institutions navigate an increasingly complex and volatile landscape, the need for a comprehensive framework to ensure long-term sustainability has become paramount. Yet many colleges and universities struggle to implement effective strategic planning processes that drive real institutional transformation.

Higher education is at a crossroads, with colleges and universities facing economic pressures, demographic changes, and shifting public perceptions. The traditional model of higher education has been disrupted by several factors, including the decreasing number of college-age students, increasing costs, and a shift in public sentiment that questions the value of a college degree. This shift is particularly challenging for institutions heavily reliant on tuition revenue that are facing increased competition from non-traditional and online education providers.

Influenced by rising costs and a post-pandemic economy, prospective students now view higher education through a lens of affordability and proximity instead of taking the long-term view of how a degree will boost their employability and economic status over a career that will last 40 years. As a result, institutions must now market themselves effectively while distinguishing their unique strengths, which brings us to the foundational pillars of sustainability: strategic planning, alignment, and stakeholder attunement.

Pillar 1: Holistic Strategic Planning for Sustainable Growth

A shift from episodic to continuous planning.

In a volatile environment, universities must move away from episodic, every-few-year planning cycles and adopt a continuous, responsive approach to strategic planning . This shift encourages institutional innovation and agility and allows institutions to regularly assess their situation and make timely adjustments.

A successful strategic plan looks far beyond immediate problems and defines the vision that extends years into the future, so we preach “start with the end in mind” for planning sessions with clients. This forward-looking approach anticipates changes in educational demands, labor markets, technology, and social expectations, positioning the institution to adapt to these shifts while building into the planning processes that review and update the plan based on external and internal environmental factors.

Key Components of Holistic Strategic Planning

Vision and Mission Development:   Higher education strategic planning must begin with articulating a clear mission that reflects their unique purpose and contributions to higher education. The vision should guide long-term goals, align with core values, and prioritize student outcomes, institutional impact, and social contribution. And two of the most important factors in an institution’s vision are that (1) it must be shared, and (2) it is measurable.

Data-Driven Decision-Making: Effective strategic planning in higher education requires comprehensive data collection and analysis . Data on the future environment in which the institution will be operating, student success, market demand, faculty performance, and financial health provide insight into strengths and areas requiring improvement. Institutions can make targeted, evidence-based adjustments as needed by using data to inform decisions – a dashboard approach to monitoring progress against plan.

Risk Planning: Risk (scenario) planning allows institutions to prepare for potential futures by exploring outcomes based on current trends and possible disruptions. This method of “what-if” analysis is crucial in a time of rapid change, helping institutions remain resilient and ready to pivot in response to unexpected challenges.

Integration of Financial Planning: Financial sustainability is foundational to any strategic plan. Budget allocations should support the institution’s long-term goals rather than favoring immediate operational needs. In this way, financial planning affirms strategic priorities, ensuring that resources are directed toward initiatives that advance the institution’s overarching goals.

Ongoing Feedback Loops: Continuous feedback and assessment loops are essential to any strategic planning model . By consistently reviewing outcomes, soliciting stakeholder input, and analyzing relevant data, institutions can refine their plans to stay relevant and effective.

Pillar 2: Alignment of Strategies, Structures, and Processes

For a strategic plan to be effective, it requires alignment across all areas of the institution – that is, the strategies, structures, processes, and people must all head in the same direction. Misalignment often results in disjointed efforts, wasted resources, and missed opportunities for improvement. Effective alignment ensures that all departments, from academic programs to administrative offices, work together to achieve shared goals.

Build an Integrated Approach for Holistic Strategic Planning

Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Institutions need to break down silos that separate academic and administrative departments. Creating cross-functional teams helps ensure that strategies are consistent, avoids duplication of efforts, and fosters a culture of collaboration. For instance, aligning enrollment management with academic advising and student support services can improve student retention and graduation rates.

In higher education, an institution generally focuses on improving one area, e.g., enrollment management, but fails to make changes to the areas that work with enrollment management. This limits the improvements that can be made. For example, Institution A struggles with enrollment and implements a new plan to improve enrollment by 15 %. However, Institution A did not improve their onboarding process or student services, and its new students drop out. Net result: the institution spent more money to improve its enrollments, but because those new students they enrolled dropped out, they lost money and became less financially sustainable. These types of systemic issues often signal the need for comprehensive academic realignment and organizational redesign to create lasting institutional change .

Curriculum and Market Relevance: Academic programs should be continuously evaluated and updated to align with industry trends and employer needs. Curriculum committees that include representatives from marketing, career services, and alumni relations can make curricula more relevant, marketable, and aligned with current demands.

But here’s the problem. Faculty are generally in charge of curricula, and they typically build curricula that align with their own areas of expertise – rarely do they take into account BLS data and other resources that would align with market demand. This frequently results in new programs that do not recoup the financial investment institutions put into them, e.g., new faculty, marketing, etc. When this happens, you end up with a white elephant program that ultimately will (should) be cut (or better yet, not implemented in the first place).

Clear Accountability and Responsibility:   For higher education strategic planning to succeed, institutions must establish clear responsibilities at each level. Accountability measures, such as defined performance metrics and regular progress reviews, ensure that each stakeholder knows their role in advancing the institution’s goals. This structured approach to institutional sustainability empowers faculty and staff while aligning individual contributions with strategic priorities. Regular monitoring of these accountability measures is crucial for the strategic planning framework to drive real transformation.

Implementation Roadmaps: A major challenge in higher education strategic planning is turning vision into action. Every strategic plan should have a detailed roadmap for implementing strategic initiatives to set timelines and allocate necessary resources and expected outcomes. This is where strategic planning transitions into strategic management – two distinct but complementary processes that institutions must understand to succeed. Institutions should develop these roadmaps to prevent strategic plans from becoming stagnant and ensure that each step has an actionable follow-through plan.

One of the biggest issues with institutions building a strategic plan is that it never gets looked at once it’s built – we call that the SPOTS syndrome (strategic plan on the top shelf… gathering dust). Or worse, institutions do not have a strategic plan at all. This latter is rarer in that (most) accreditors require a strategic plan, but because many institutional leaders believe that a strategic plan is useless because things change, they revert to the SPOTS syndrome.

If institutions make their strategic plans a “living, breathing document” that is updated regularly and guides actions, they will find that their results are far better than otherwise.

Utilizing Technology for Alignment: Digital dashboards and integrated management systems enable institutions to monitor real-time progress and ensure transparency. These tools can be especially useful for institutions with complex structures, as they offer an accessible way to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and measure success across different departments.

Many higher education boards are moving in the direction of dashboards. These are especially effective for higher education boards of trustees to monitor the institution. However, getting the right data, i.e., outcomes versus processes, is critical to ensure alignment and accountability.

Pillar 3: Engaging Stakeholders for a Shared Vision

An often overlooked component of strategic planning success is the need for a shared vision that resonates with all stakeholders. Effective engagement requires more than occasional consultation; it involves actively involving stakeholders in the planning and decision-making. This builds buy-in, reduces resistance to change, and fosters a sense of community.

Practical Strategies for Stakeholder Engagement

Inclusive Strategic Planning Processes: Universities can involve faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners in initial strategic discussions. Establishing advisory councils or focus groups for each stakeholder group provides a structured way to collect feedback and ideas. This collaborative approach allows stakeholders to see their input reflected in the final plan, increasing their commitment to its success.

In the “stakeholder input and attunement process” (SIP) , we involve key stakeholders from across and external to the institution in the planning process by getting their thoughts and input. This goes a long way in building a shared vision and mitigating resistance to change.

Feedback Integration: The SIP process, along with structured advisory committees and shared governance structures, provides opportunities for stakeholders to give the feedback crucial for continuous improvement and stakeholder satisfaction. Faculty, staff, and student surveys are a way to gauge how initiatives are perceived and where adjustments may be needed. Stakeholders should also be invited to share feedback on the implementation process, allowing the institution to make real-time improvements.

Transparent Communication Channels: Regular, transparent communication helps keep stakeholders informed of progress and invites ongoing input. Institutions can create newsletters, town hall meetings, and online portals to ensure everyone is aware of strategic developments, fostering a culture of trust and openness.

Celebrating Small Wins: Recognizing and celebrating milestones fosters a sense of progress and motivation among stakeholders. Institutions reinforce the shared vision and encourage continued commitment by publicly acknowledging accomplishments.

Addressing Common Barriers to Change for Successful Strategic Plan Implementation

Implementing change in higher education often encounters resistance, which may arise from a lack of clarity, fear of the unknown, or entrenched behaviors. To successfully implement strategic changes, institutions must overcome resistance to change by addressing three common barriers: people, processes, and structures.

Navigating Resistance to Change

Changing Mindsets: Resistance to change frequently stems from long-held beliefs or skepticism about the need for change and requires stakeholders to change their mindset about how to get to the future. This resistance is generally born of fear and suspicion, but by fostering a culture of openness and transparency, institutions can mitigate this. Leaders should also emphasize the benefits of change and how it aligns with individual roles.

Streamlining Processes: Outdated processes can hinder progress. Institutions should conduct a process audit to identify inefficiencies and redesign processes to support strategic goals. Streamlined processes help eliminate redundancies and align operations with the institution’s mission.

Reevaluating Structures: Traditional organizational structures, such as departmental silos, often limit flexibility. Implementing structures that encourage interdepartmental collaboration and accountability can improve responsiveness and help the institution adapt to changes.

Establishing Accountability to Drive Success

Accountability ensures that strategic initiatives are executed effectively and contribute to the institution’s goals. By linking accountability with each phase of the strategic plan, institutions can foster a results-oriented culture where individuals understand their roles in contributing to institutional success.

Clearly Define Responsibilities and Accountabilities: Clearly outline who is responsible for each aspect of the strategic plan, from setting goals to implementing actions. This transparency avoids ambiguity, streamlines execution, and ensures each phase has an accountable owner.

Schedule Regular Review Sessions: Monthly or quarterly review sessions allow leaders to track progress and address obstacles. These sessions can help identify areas where additional resources or support may be needed, ensuring the plan remains on track.

Define Outcome-Based Performance Metrics: Institutions should use outcome-based metrics tied to the strategic plan’s goals. For example, measuring retention rates and student satisfaction aligns with strategic goals related to student success. When metrics focus on outcomes rather than processes, institutions can make adjustments to stay aligned with desired results.

Foster a Culture of Accountability: Creating an environment where faculty, staff, and administrators feel accountable to institutional goals goes beyond formal metrics. Encouraging a culture where people take ownership of their work and its impact on the institution’s mission strengthens the overall strategic effort.

Building a Lasting Institutional Identity

An institution’s brand promise and identity are fundamental to attracting and retaining students, faculty, and partners. Developing a distinct institutional identity that resonates with prospective students and families can differentiate a university in an increasingly competitive marketplace. A strong identity also reinforces internal alignment, as it serves as a rallying point for staff, faculty, and students.

Positioning for Competitive Advantage: Higher education is becoming more competitive, and students often view institutions through a practical lens, considering factors like affordability, reputation, and job placement rates. Universities should assess their strengths, identify areas of distinction, and develop a clear value proposition that resonates with their target audience.

Aligning Brand with Mission: The institution’s mission should be reflected in its branding, student experience, and campus culture . Colleges can strengthen their brand’s impact and appeal by cultivating a consistent message that aligns with institutional goals.

Leveraging Alumni Success Stories: Alumni success is a powerful tool for promoting the institution’s impact. Highlighting alumni achievements can demonstrate the value of a degree and reinforce the institution’s brand promise to prospective students.

Pathways to a Sustainable Future in Higher Education

Building a sustainable future for higher education institutions requires them to be adaptable, strategic, and inclusive. Colleges and universities can address today’s challenges and thrive in a  VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment by embracing holistic planning, alignment, and stakeholder engagement. With clear goals, a distinct identity, and strong alignment across all areas, institutions can not only survive but excel, driving lasting positive impact for their students, communities, and society as a whole.

If you liked this article, you might also like Dr. McNaughton’s Strategic Planning and Management for Higher Ed Institutions Webinar →

Share This Post

Recent posts and podcasts:.

Censorship in Higher Education: A PEN America Perspective: Changing Higher Ed® podcast 241 with host Dr. Drumm McNaughton and guest Dr. Jeremy Young

Higher Ed 2024 Year in Review and 2025 Predictions: A Year of Change and Challenges

Higher Education 2025 Predictions and 2024 Year in Review: Changing Higher Ed Podcast 240 with guest host Tom Netting and co-host Dr. Drumm McNaughton

Subscribe to the change leader, get the latest higher ed news and expert insights from our articles, podcasts and newsletters..

Integrated Planning

Integrated planning is a sustainable approach to planning that builds relationships, aligns the organization, and emphasizes preparedness for change.

• How It Works and Why It’s Critical
• Competencies
• Strategic Planning
• Institutional Effectiveness Planning
• Accreditation Pressures
• Planning Alignment
• Change Management
• Academic Planning
• Student Success, Retention, and Graduation
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
• Campus Planning
• Responding to Disruptive Events

Featured Formats

• Example Plans
• All Resources >>

Popular Topics

• Implementation
• Higher Ed Trends

Events & Programs

Upcoming Events

• Where Do We Start? Exploring Different Perspectives on How to Begin a Planning Process Webinar | Jan 15
• Community Conversations: Preparing for a Planning Process Virtual | Jan 23
• Building the Capacity for Planning: The Integrated Planning Competencies Webinar | Feb 5
• Planning Institute: Design Virtual Workshop | Feb 6-7
• All Events >>
• Annual Conference
• Event Recordings and Presentations
• Planning Institute
• Integrated Planning Coaching
• Share Your Expertise

The SCUP community opens a whole world of integrated planning resources, connections, and expertise.

Get Connected

• Emerging Leaders Program
• SCUP Fellows
• Corporate Visibility

SCUP Exchange: A member-only digital platform for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Check it Out

Integrated Planning Glossary

A shared language around planning.

Do you call it a “goal,” “objective,” or “priority”? The terms used to describe planning vary from campus to campus. That’s why it’s critical that your college or university creates a shared language around planning that everybody understands. The SCUP Integrated Planning Glossary gives you a place to start. Use our list of common planning terms and our definitions to begin conversations about your institution’s unique planning language.

Updated July 2024.

Academic planning. An effort that makes intentional, future-focused decisions about an institution’s “academic enterprise”—teaching, learning, engagement, and research. It can cover a range of activities and functions, including curriculum, student supports, degree offerings, the academic calendar, research agenda, etc. Academic planning is also known as educational master planning or academic master planning . See also academic program planning . Learn more about how academic planning works. See all learning resources on this topic.

Academic program planning. A subset of academic planning, academic program planning measures, analyzes, and prioritizes academic programs to help institutions achieve strategic balance. [1] See also academic planning , institutional effectiveness planning .

Accreditation. Higher education accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met. If standards are met, accredited status is granted by the agency. In most countries around the world, the function of higher education accreditation is conducted by a government organization, such as a ministry of education. [2] See also institutional effectiveness planning . Learn more about how to deal with the challenge of accreditation pressures. See all learning resources on this topic.

Action planning. See tactical planning .

Advancement planning. Outlines how relationships outside the institution will be built and nurtured so people and communities understand an institution’s impact and support its initiatives.

Alignment. A state of agreement and cooperation among individuals, groups, processes, documents, etc., about what should be done, how, and why. Learn more about how to deal with the challenge of planning alignment. See all learning resources on this topic.

Alignment, horizontal. The coordination of groups across boundaries so they effectively work together toward the same goals.

Alignment, vertical. The direct connection of desired outcomes from mission to on-the-ground operations.

Assessment. Processes that use data and information to measure the effectiveness of institutional efforts and identify how those efforts can be improved. Includes strategic plan evaluation, student learning outcomes, institutional effectiveness, etc. See also institutional effectiveness planning . See all learning resources on this topic.

Benchmarks. Specific performance indicators used to compare institutions or programs against established criteria. See also metric .

Bottom-up leaders. These are informal leaders who use influence and politics to persuade and bring about change.

Budget, capital. A plan of funding and expenditures for future buildings, major renovations, and remodeling.

Budget, operational. A plan of revenue to be generated and expenditures (or transfers) from that revenue over a finite period of time (such as a fiscal year).

Budget planning. The process for allocating funds in an institution. See also resource planning , capital planning . See all learning resources on this topic.

Budget process. The method and timeline (or cycle) used by an institution to create its operating budget.

Campus master planning. While campus planning occurs every day as an ongoing process, longer-range recommendations are often documented in a report called a campus master plan or campus land use plan (plan). See also campus planning . See all learning resources on this topic.

Campus planning. Planning that outlines the long-term direction of the physical campus. It includes elements such as open space, buildings, non-motorized circulation (walking paths, bike lanes, etc.), motorized circulation (roads, public transportation access, etc.), and utilities. It ensures the highest and best use of land to meet an institution’s academic, research, and outreach missions. See also campus master planning , capital planning , facilities planning , strategic planning . Learn more about how campus planning works. See all learning resources on this topic.

Capabilities. How an institution uses its organizational capacity (the things it does). See also organizational capacity ( Leinwand and Mainardi, 2016 ).

Capabilities, basic. The capabilities every institution should be proficient in ( Leinwand and Mainardi, 2016 ).

Capabilities, distinctive. What your institution does well, what the stakeholders you serve value, and what your competitors can’t beat ( Leinwand and Mainardi, 2016 ).

Capital planning. Within the context of its strategic plan and campus master plan, the process by which an institution decides which long-term investments in future buildings, major renovations, and remodeling to make. [3] See also budget planning , campus master planning , campus planning , facilities planning , resource planning .

Change management. A systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of an organization and on the individual level. Learn more about how to deal with the challenge of change management. See all learning resources on this topic.

Coalition. A group of people—often from disparate parts of a complex organization—who have joined together for a common purpose. These groups are either formal (see also steering committee , planning team , or implementation team ) or informal (see also kitchen cabinet ). Coalition-building is a required element of integrated planning. [4]

Collective leadership. Leadership by group—either a group of top-down leaders or a group of bottom-up leaders.

Communication plan. A document that outlines how you will inform, engage with, and seek feedback from your plan’s stakeholders, including specific audiences, messages, delivery methods, and frequency.

Conflict. A struggle or contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values, or goals.

Consultant. External agent who provides guidance for fee on any part of the integrated planning process. [5]

Continuity planning. Planning that provides a framework for higher education institutions to respond to emergencies and disasters. The framework is flexible enough to adapt to different events and circumstances, yet comprehensive enough to give peace of mind. Learn more about how continuity planning works. Learn about how to deal with the challenge of COVID-19 response and planning. See all learning resources on this topic.

Critical success factor. A condition or variable that is necessary for an institution or project to achieve its mission. Answers the question: What must we do to be successful?

Difference. A way in which ideas, people, or things are not the same.

Disruption. Short for “disruptive innovation,” which is an innovation that makes a complicated and expensive product simpler and cheaper and therefore attracts a new set of customers. ( Christensen and Eyring 2011 ).

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) planning. Planning that outlines how a college or university will:

• Gather a community of students, faculty, administrators, staff, and alumni who have a wide spectrum of characteristics, backgrounds, and identities.
• Empower each member of that community to achieve their full potential by removing barriers, addressing the impacts of historical injustices, and adopting just policies, practices, and structures.
• Foster an environment and culture that values, welcomes, and respects differences.

Learn more about how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) planning works. See all learning resources on this topic.

Enrollment planning. See strategic enrollment management planning .

Environmental scanning. An exploration and analysis of the external factors affecting an institution. See also STEEP analysis . Read SCUP’s latest trends reports. See all learning resources on this topic.

Execution. See implementation .

Facilities planning. Planning that outlines goals and uses for all of an institution’s owned and/or leased space. It includes short-term tactics and prioritization of, and funding for, annual facility-related projects. While a facility plan, which has a shorter time horizon, typically responds to a campus master plan (which generally has a time horizon of 10 years), it also aligns with other unit plans (academic plan, technology plan, budget plan). See also campus master planning , campus planning . See all learning resources on this topic.

Financial planning. See budget planning .

Futuring. An exercise that helps institutions plan for future forces by thinking in the future tense, then using the resulting insights to shape plans and actions, both today and into the future.

Gap analysis. A method to assess the current state, the desired future state, and what an institution needs to move from the current state to the desired future state.

Goal. A broad, general statement of intended outcomes or results. See also GOST .

GOST. Pronounced “ghost,” GOST is an acronym for Goals, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics.

Governance. The framework of policies, structures, roles, relationships, systems, and processes that define formal responsibility, authority, and accountability for the institution ( Morrill 2010 ; Winchester 2017 ). See also shared governance .

Implementation. The process of putting a plan into action.

Implementation plan. A document that outlines how the strategic plan will be put into action, monitored, and revised.

Implementation team (I-Team). The group of people who coordinate implementation of the strategic plan. [6] See also planning team .

Information technology planning. Information technology (IT) planning guides the use of resources for IT systems and services used throughout the higher education institution. Learn more about how information technology planning works. See all learning resources on this topic.

Initiative. A general term for a strategy, program, product, service, or project.

Institutional context. The characteristics, conditions, and history of an institution that shape planning, governance, decision-making, resource allocations, and operations.

Institutional effectiveness planning. A higher education institution’s effort to organize evaluation, assessment, and improvement initiatives so the institution can determine how well it is fulfilling its mission and achieving its goals. Institutional effectiveness (IE) planning may cover ( The Association for Higher Education Effectiveness, 2018 ):

• Institutional research
• Program review (academic and/or administrative)
• Student learning outcome assessment
• Accreditation
• Plan measurement and decision support

See also academic program review , accreditation , assessment . Learn more about how institutional effectiveness planning works. See all learning resources on this topic.

Institutional plan. A plan for a specific aspect of operations or for cross-boundary initiatives that cover the entire institution. Examples: academic plan, campus master plan, budget plan, IT plans, student life, enrollment services, etc. See SCUP’s Example Plans collection (member-only resource).

Integrated planning. A sustainable approach to planning that builds relationships, aligns the organization, and emphasizes preparedness for change. Integrated planning is both an overarching model of alignment—the connective tissue amongst disparate institutional planning efforts— and a process of planning within each of the institution’s component planning efforts. See also strategic planning .

Kitchen cabinet. Informal or unofficial group of trusted advisors often, but not always, involved in an integrated planning process. [7] See also consultant , sponsor , planning team .

Key Performance Indicator (KPI). A quantifiable metric used to evaluate the success of an organization, employee, etc., in meeting objectives for performance ( Oxford English Dictionary ). See also metric .

Landscape. See environmental scanning .

Library planning. Establishes how the library (or libraries) will support a higher education institution’s strategies and operations. In particular, it looks at how the library can advance a college’s or university’s learning, research, and/or service programs and initiatives. Learn more about how library planning works. See all learning resources on this topic.

Mandate. A directive an institution is required to do (or not do), often imposed by an external actor or force. Mandates may be formal, such as laws, rules, regulations, or informal, such as political mandates for change or deeply held public expectations.

Maturity model. A step approach that enables institutions to assess their planning capability. The integrated planning maturity model can be used as a tool for institutions to develop a roadmap for improving integrated planning.

Metric. A quantifiable measure that is used to track, compare, and evaluate performance or processes.

Milestone. A significant date or event during the implementation of a plan.

Mission. An institution’s stated purpose or reason for existence.

Objective. A specific, measurable outcome an institution intends to accomplish. See also GOST .

Operational planning. A process for determining the day-to-day operations of an institution or unit over the next one to 12 months.

Opportunities. See SWOT analysis .

Organizational capacity. The resources an institution has available to use, including physical resources (land, buildings), IT, budget, and human resources (time and skill).

Organizational culture. A system of assumptions, values, and beliefs that drives behaviors, actions, roles, and practices in an organization. See all learning resources on this topic.

Outcome. A result from the implementation of a plan or any of its components.

Performance measure. See metric .

Physical planning. See facilities planning .

Plan cycle. An iterative process that follows the planning roadmap from planning to plan, through plan development and implementation, to ending a plan.

Plan-ending triggers. Significant events during plan implementation that cause an institution to end one plan cycle and begin a new plan cycle. See also plan cycle .

Plan to plan. See planning roadmap .

Planning horizon. The amount of time an institution will look into the future when preparing a strategic plan (or the amount of time covered by a particular plan or planning cycle). In general, its length is dictated by the degree of uncertainty in the external environment. The higher the uncertainty, the shorter the planning horizon. [8]

Planning roadmap. The “plan to plan” that documents the planning process to be used, including activities, timeline, stakeholders, planning horizon, and scope.

Planning team (P-Team). A formal group of people assembled to prepare a plan. [9] See also implementation team .

Power. The ability or capacity to influence or direct the behavior of others.

Records retention program. The systematic storage, tracking, and destruction of business documents and records.

Resource planning. The process for determining and allocating resources in an institution, including funds, people, space/facilities, technology, and equipment. Learn more about how resource planning works. Learn more about how to deal with the challenge of funding uncertainty. See all learning resources on the topic of resource planning.

Scenario planning. A process that generates multiple well-crafted contradictory narratives about the future to anticipate possible outcomes of driving forces ( Wade 2012 ). Learn more about how scenario planning works. Check out the SCUP Toolkit, An Integrated Approach to Scenario Planning . See all learning resources on this topic.

Self study. An in-depth, comprehensive, and reflective assessment effort carried out within an institution to examine structures, policies, practices, infrastructure, and performance in order to identify what’s working well, what needs more support, and opportunities for improvement and innovation.

Shared governance. A system through which members of the campus community come together to make collective institutional decisions. Traditionally, shared governance was the work of faculty, administrators, and trustees. Recently, the stakeholder groups have grown to include: accrediting agencies, alumni, employers, higher ed councils and coordinating boards, legislators, contingent faculty, staff, and students ( Harris et al. 2022 ). See also governance .

SMART. An acronym that describes the characteristics of a good goal. It stands for:

• Specific: Clearly define the intended outcome.
• Measurable: The goal can be quantified.
• Assignable: A person, department, or committee could be given responsibility for the goal.
• Realistic: It can be achieved with an institution’s resources and in the amount of time indicated.
• Timebound: Identifies when the goal will be completed.

Sponsor. People (typically senior institutional leaders) who have the prestige, power, and authority to commit an institution to developing and implementing a plan and hold people accountable for doing so. There is often a single, overarching sponsor, but a group of sponsors can be called a steering committee. [10] See also planning team .

Stakeholder(s). An internal or external person, group, or organization that will affect or be affected by an institution’s choices and actions. Learn more about how to deal with the challenge of engaging stakeholders. See all learning resources on this topic.

STEEP analysis. A way to organize environmental scanning. STEEP stands for social forces, technological forces, economic forces, environmental forces, and political forces. See also environmental scanning .

Steering committee. See sponsor .

Strategic enrollment management planning. Strategic enrollment management (SEM) planning is an institution’s efforts to identify, recruit, enroll, retain, and graduate a student body in accordance with an institution’s mission and goals while also maintaining fiscal sustainability. Learn more about how strategic enrollment management planning works. See all learning resources on this topic.

Strategic issues. Pressing problems and/or significant opportunities that must be strategically addressed for an institution to meet its mission, vision, and/or remain operationally viable.

Strategic plan. A product of the strategic planning process that documents and communicates decisions made during the planning process. See also strategic planning . See strategic plans in SCUP’s Example Plans collection (member-only resource).

Strategic planning. A deliberate, disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an institution is, what it does, and why it does it. See also integrated planning . Learn more about how strategic planning works. See strategic plans in SCUP’s Example Plans collection (member-only resource). See all learning resources on this topic.

Strategy. A plan of action created to achieve a goal or a vision or to address a strategic issue.

Student affairs planning. A higher education institution’s effort to align its student activities and campus environment with the needs of students to enrich and enhance the student experience. Student affairs planning often focuses on:

• Learning and development outside the classroom
• Student health and wellness
• Creating a climate that supports diversity, inclusion, and equity
• Preparing students for success after graduation

Learn more about how student affairs planning works. Learn about how to deal with the challenge of student success, retention, and graduation. See all learning resources on the topic of student affairs planning. See all learning resources on the topic of student success, retention, and graduation.

Sustainability planning. Planning that outlines a college’s or university’s overall sustainability goals and how those goals will be met. Sustainability planning nearly always addresses environmental and ecological health; it can also include human health and wellbeing, equity and social justice, and economic integrity ( The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, 2020 ). Learn more about how sustainability planning works. See all learning resources on this topic.

SWOT analysis. A structured planning method used to evaluate internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors affecting an institution, department, project, industry, or person. [11] See also TOWS Analysis .

Tactic. A specific action an institution takes to carry out a strategy.

Tactical plan. A product of tactical planning that documents and communicates tasks that need to be completed, who is responsible, timeframe, required resources, milestones, and expected outcomes.

Tactical planning. A process that details the specific tasks that need to be completed to implement a plan.

Tasks. See tactic .

Technology planning. See information technology planning .

Thinking, conventional. When faced with opposing ideas, conventional thinking is simplistic in problem solving, often forcing you to make unattractive tradeoffs ( Martin 2009 ).

Thinking, integrative. The ability to constructively face the tension of opposing ideas and generate a new creative solution that combines the elements of the opposing ideas ( Martin 2009 ).

Top-down leaders. These are formal leaders who have authority based on their position in the organization.

TOWS analysis. A strategic planning tool used to identify strategies by examining the external opportunities (O) and threats (T) against the internal strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) of an institution. See also SWOT analysis .

Trends. See environmental scanning . Read SCUP’s latest trends reports.

Unit plan. Plan for a specific group that is part of the larger institution.

Value proposition. A value proposition describes how a stakeholder can benefit from a product, service, or process by addressing his or her needs, wants, and concerns.

• Needs: Something your stakeholder must have; something they can’t do without.
• Wants: Something your stakeholder would like to have. It is not absolutely necessary, but it would be nice to have.
• Concerns: Something your stakeholder fears.

Values. The guiding principles or beliefs of a person or an organization. [12]

Vision. A description of what an institution (and key parts of the external environment) will look like if the institution achieves its full potential. [13]

VUCA. An acronym from the military to describe a rapidly changing and unpredictable world, it stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Check out the SCUP Report, Integrated Planning in a VUCA Environment: Advice You Need in the Age of COVID-19 .

Weaknesses. See SWOT analysis .

1. An effective APP progress utilizes criterion such as external and internal demand, quality of program inputs and processes, equipment and facilities, quality of program outcomes, size and productivity, revenue, and costs.

2. In the United States, however, the quality assurance process is independent of government and performed by private membership associations. In the US, accreditation often requires a major strategic planning effort.

3. This planning should ensure that any proposals to erect or renovate buildings are made within the context of the strategic plan and campus master plan.

4. Successful coalition-building is a required element of successful integrated planning. Without the ownership developed through a thoughtfully designed participatory process, the likelihood of a failed plan is enormous.

5. Consultants are often hired when institutions determine a part (or all) of the planning process is too complex or difficult to handle solely with institutional staff and faculty. Consultants can help identify, and provide solutions for, stumbles, misdirection, or political problems that slow or stop the planning process. Consultants should not tell the institution what its strategic plan should contain or how it should be implemented without institution-wide input ( Karen Hinton, SCUP, 2012 ).

6. Often, an I-Team follows the work of the P-Team, which once a plan is complete, disbands. Dependent on the institution, there are several variations (in use and composition) of the I-Team.

7. Members of a kitchen cabinet can be individuals or groups, internal or external to an institutional planning process. Though they do not serve as sponsors, champions, or members of the planning team, members of kitchen cabinets are often called upon to provide key advice.

8. Planning horizons are often, though not always, affected by presidential turnover as new presidents want to develop and execute their own plan.

9. The nerve center of an integrated planning process, the composition and activities of a planning team are crucial to the success, or failure, of any institutional strategic planning efforts. Initially, the establishment of a planning team means the creation of a new, institution-wide committee. However, for long-term continuity and to acculturate planning as an important institutional value, the P-Team should play a longer term role, often through implementation and beyond.

10. Sponsors are not necessarily involved in the day-to-day details of strategic planning, but they set the stage for success and pay careful attention to the progress of the process.

11. A SWOT analysis is typically used early in a planning process, but can be returned to and re-used as needed.

• Strengths: characteristics of the institution that give it an advantage over others.
• Weaknesses: characteristics that place the institution at a disadvantage relative to others.
• Opportunities: elements that the institution could exploit to its advantage.
• Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the institution.

12. Value statements answer these questions: How do we want to conduct business? How do we want to treat our key stakeholders? What do we really care about (in essence, what do we value?)? Values are a part of an organization’s culture, so there may very well be a difference between the values people espouse and the values they actually follow in practice.

13. A vision statement can include an institution’s mission, basic philosophy and core values, goals, basic strategies, performance criteria, and important decision-making rules. An institution may have to go through more than one cycle of strategic planning before it can develop an effective vision for itself; regardless, a full-blown vision is more likely to be a guide for strategy implementation than strategy formulation.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. “What Is Sustainability?” Accessed November 30, 2020.

The Association for Higher Education Effectiveness. “Developing the Integrated Institutional Effectiveness Office.” November 30, 2018.

Christensen, Clayton M., and Henry J. Eyring. The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011.

Harris, James T., Jason E. Lane, Jeffrey C. Sun, and Gail F. Baker. Academic Leadership and Governance of Higher Education: A Guide for Trustees, Leaders, and Aspiring Leaders of Two- and Four-Year Institutions. 2nd ed. Milton Park, Oxfordshire, England: Routlege, 2022.

Hinton, Karen E. A Practical Guide to Strategic Planning in Higher Education. Ann Arbor: Society for College and University Planning, 2012.

Leinwand, Paul, Cesare Mainardi, and Art Kleiner. Strategy That Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2016.

Martin, Roger L. The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win through Integrative Thinking. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2009.

Morrill, Richard L. Strategic Leadership: Integrating Strategy and Leadership in Colleges and Universities . Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.

“Key Performance Indicator | Definition of Key Performance Indicator in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English. Accessed September 19, 2016.

Wade, Woody. Scenario Planning: A Field Guide to the Future. Hoboken: Wiley, 2012.

Winchester, Hilary. “ Academic Governance – what is it and why does it matter? ” Blog. LinkedIn , 2017.

Mobile Menu Overlay

The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Biden- ⁠ Harris Administration Releases Federal Strategic Plan for Advancing STEM Education and Cultivating STEM   Talent

Since Day One, the Biden-Harris Administration has taken bold steps to advance economic opportunity, educational excellence, and workforce development. Maintaining U.S. global leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) requires a strong workforce. Today, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is releasing a new Federal Strategic Plan for Advancing STEM Education and Cultivating STEM Talent to advance President Biden’s goals of increasing economic opportunity for all and developing the workforce needed to meet the great challenges of our time, from combating the climate crisis to realizing the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) while managing its risks.

The strategic plan will guide the federal government, in coordination with partners throughout the STEM ecosystem, to inspire, teach, recruit, train, and retain talent in STEM learning, working, and research settings so that people across the country can achieve their aspirations in STEM. The plan identifies three principles—access and opportunity, partnerships and ecosystem development, and transparency and accountability—that are essential to advancing the five pillars of STEM engagement, teaching and learning, workforce, research and innovation capacity, and environments.

In an effort to ensure the plan reflected the needs of the American people, OSTP  hosted several listening sessions  to gather input to inform the plan. The National Science and Technology Council’s  Committee on STEM (CoSTEM), which consists of over 20 federal agencies, developed the strategy with OSTP and other components of the Executive Office of the President, and will support implementation of the plan.

This five-year strategic plan builds on the momentum created by the Biden-Harris Administration’s  Investing in America  agenda, which is improving the full continuum of STEM education and talent development. The CHIPS and Science Act, which President Biden championed and  signed into law  in 2022, has made historic public investments in STEM education and workforce development.  These investments are critical to the prosperity, security, and health of our nation.

Read the full plan here .

Stay Connected

We'll be in touch with the latest information on how President Biden and his administration are working for the American people, as well as ways you can get involved and help our country build back better.

Opt in to send and receive text messages from President Biden.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK

Associate Director, Business Operations and Strategic Planning

• Clinical Trials Office
• Columbia University Medical Center
• Opening on: Jan 20 2024
• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $110,000 - $135,000

Position Summary

Reporting directly to the Executive Director of the Clinical Trials Office ( CTO) , the Associate Director for Operations ( Associate Director) is responsible for the management and oversight of business operations and finance in the CTO at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons ( VP&S) and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital ( NYPH). In addition, the Associate Director will participate in special projects relating to business operations and finance in the Office of Sponsored Projects Administration ( SPA).

The CTO, which operates as a joint venture between VP&S and NYPH, assists Columbia University ( University) faculty and academic/research staff in the development of industry sponsored and investigator initiated clinical trials and clinical research (collectively, Clinical Trials) and provides administrative resources and infrastructure to build and sustain Clinical Trial research at the University. SPA is responsible for proposal and contract review, proposal submission, award set up and related activities for all externally sponsored research at the University other than Clinical Trials.

Responsibilities

• Works closely with the Executive Director for Clinical Trials Office ( ED ), the Office of the EVPR, the Office of the Dean of VP&S, the Office of the Controller, including Research Policy and Indirect Cost, the Office of the General Counsel, VP&S Faculty and NYPH administration in meeting the institutional needs with respect to the CTO’s financial management, quality assurance, training and process-improvement goals.
• Develops and implements policies and procedures designed to ensure that the financial responsibilities of government, private, and industry sponsored research are carried out in compliance with applicable federal and state regulations, including those promulgated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the rules of the Joint Commission.
• Management, development, and execution of the financial IT systems and data within the CTO.
• Develops and implements financial policies and procedures for the CTO.
• Assesses financial data security and management practices in the CTO.
• Ensures compliance with government and University rules and regulations relating to financial aspects of Clinical Trials.
• Collaborates with the ED and the CTO directors in the oversight of all post-award activities for Clinical Trials, including billing and collections, reporting and reconciliation of financial results and oversight of collections from sponsors.
• Supports leadership and operational teams in integrating change management activities as part of continual process improvement initiatives.
• Partners with operational teams in ensuring that policies, procedures, and processes are developed, maintained, and documented to ensure efficient workflow and transparency with respect to Clinical Trials.
• Establishes and implements HR policies and procedures for the CTO.
• Provides analyses of budgets and financial projections regularly and as requested by the ED, the EVPR and other institutional officials.
• Analyzes, reconciles and reports on comparative financial data from peer institutions.
• Participates in special projects relating to the business and financial aspects of SPA, as assigned by the ED.
• Performs related duties & responsibilities as assigned/requested.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree  or equivalent  in education and experience, plus five years of related experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Business Administration
• In-depth knowledge of the financial and business aspects of research.
• Demonstrable ability to collaborate with partners in research (including government, foundation and industry sponsors), investigators and research staff.
• Expert knowledge of analysis of financial data and preparation of budgets and financial reports.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills.
• Strong computer skills required, including, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Access, and SharePoint

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

Commitment to Diversity 

Columbia university is dedicated to increasing diversity in its workforce, its student body, and its educational programs. achieving continued academic excellence and creating a vibrant university community require nothing less. in fulfilling its mission to advance diversity at the university, columbia seeks to hire, retain, and promote exceptionally talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.  , share this job.

Thank you - we'll send an email shortly.

Other Recently Posted Jobs

Variable Hours Officer, Operations Coordinator

Revenue cycle outsourcing coordinator, grant coordinator.

Refer someone to this job

• ©2022 Columbia University
• Accessibility
• Administrator Log in

Wait! Before you go, are you interested in a career at Columbia University? Sign up here! 

Thank you, for sharing your information. A member of our team will reach out to you soon!

This website uses cookies as well as similar tools and technologies to understand visitors' experiences. By continuing to use this website, you consent to Columbia University's usage of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with the Columbia University Website Cookie Notice .