Strategic Directions

All decision-making by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors is guided by a set of six strategic directions, which were established by the Board to clarify its mission for the University. These strategic directions represent the Board's top priorities and detail implementation guidelines for each. They also allow the Board to stay on a set course and track its progress. The Board reviews the strategic directions every two years and makes changes and additions to reflect current circumstances. The newest strategic direction, internationalization, was approved in January 2002 to recognize UNC's commitment to prepare students for an increasingly global society.

The strategic directions are:

I. Access: Ensure access to higher education for all qualified citizens and embrace a vision of lifelong learning. This encompasses financial access, which means keeping tuition and fees as low as practicable; maximizing the capacity of UNC institutions to accommodate projected enrollment growth; effective use of information technology to provide information on educational opportunities; timely and cost-effective construction and renovation of facilities; and collaboration with community colleges.

II. Intellectual Capital Formation: Through high quality and relevant graduate, professional, and undergraduate programs, develop an educated citizenry that will enable North Carolina to flourish. Strategies to accomplish this include regular assessment of degree programs and instruction and thorough assessment of the quality of and student access to academic resources and student support services; attracting and retaining exceptional faculty and scholars through nationally competitive compensation and benefits; and continuing to develop academic programs as well as collaborative strategies in support of critical areas of allied health, nursing, medicine, and related fields in response to the state's needs for health care providers.

III. K-16 Education: Continue to propose and support initiatives to serve the needs of the State's public schools. This includes expanding efforts in teacher preparation, expanding development of high quality programs for continuing professional development of K-12 school personnel; strengthening partnerships with K-12 and community colleges in the development of programs, curriculum, and instructional materials; and collaboration with the Department of Public Instruction to ensure that all public school students will have the necessary courses available to meet the new minimum course requirements.

IV. Creation and Transfer of Knowledge: Expand the frontiers of knowledge through scholarship and research and stimulate economic development in North Carolina through basic and applied research, technology transfer, and public service activities. Specifically, promote basic and applied research as a fundamental mission of the University; continue to expand the external sponsorship of UNC research and other creative activities for students and faculty; facilitate collaborative research and partnerships with industry, government, and other entities; and cooperate with industry and government sectors in adapting information technology for R&D application.

V. Internationalization: Promote an international perspective throughout the University community to prepare citizens to become leaders in a multi-ethnic and global society. Ways to achieve this goal include supporting and expanding student participation in international study and internships; expanding the number of UNC Exchange Program agreements; using technology to expand opportunities to exchange knowledge and ideas; expanding the presence of international scholars on UNC's campuses; and supporting research initiatives that expand UNC's ability to interact with international scholars.

VI. Transformation and Change: Use the power of information technology guided by IT strategy and more effective educational, administrative, and business practices to enable the University to respond to the competitive global environment of the 21st century. This objective can be realized by creating a UNC-wide data warehouse to simplify data collection and improve data retention; completing remaining web-enabled student services; developing an IT policy framework; and streamlining administrative processes through applications such as online purchasing.