UNC System Institutions Sign Strategic Plan Performance Agreements
Throughout September and October, the chancellors of UNC System institutions solidified their institution’s commitment to the goals of the strategic plan by inking agreements with UNC President Margaret Spellings.
In crafting the Strategic Plan, shared goals were established for moving education in the state forward, and leadership at each university worked to define specific goals based on institutional plans and priorities. The agreements make up a pact to achieve individually-defined metrics for each institution.
Developing Customized Agreements
The Strategic Plan contains nine measurable metrics under the themes of access, student success, and economic impact:
- Low-income undergraduate enrollments
- Rural undergraduate enrollments
- Completions by low-income undergraduates
- Completions by rural undergraduates
- Five-year graduation rates
- Undergraduate degrees per 100 full-time equivalent students (undergraduate degree efficiency)
- Achievement gaps in undergraduate degree efficiency
- Critical workforce credentials produced (undergraduate and graduate credentials in education, STEM, and health sciences)
- Research productivity (sponsored program awards and licensing income)
To prepare proposed targets, UNC System staff reviewed existing institution-level strategic plans, Undergraduate Degree Completion Improvement Plans, enrollment projections, and historical data. Institutional leaders then had an opportunity to suggest revisions, and these negotiations resulted in 16 signed Performance Agreements.
“These agreements are a significant step in ensuring a better-educated populace and more socially and economically mobile state,”
“These agreements are a significant step in ensuring a better-educated populace and more socially and economically mobile state,” said UNC President Margaret Spellings. “Any strategy is only as good as its execution, and I am confident these aggressive, but realistic agreements lay out the necessary and appropriate metrics and goals to guide the institutions in realizing the objectives of the Board of Governors Strategic Plan and supporting continued and transformational growth for North Carolina.”
Progress will be evaluated annually, and an institution’s overall contribution for each metric has been broken into interim benchmarks. Staff are in the process of developing interactive dashboards, which will be available online to monitor system and institution-level progress.
“For North Carolina A&T State University, the UNC System plan closely aligns with our strategic plan, A&T Preeminence 2020: Embracing Our Past, Creating Our Future, and lends further strength to our overall blueprint for the critical role we play in the state of North Carolina and beyond,” said Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. “Much thought and dialogue has gone into this important planning process, and we will continue to partner with General Administration and UNC system campuses to ensure the plan’s success.”
Annually, the UNC System will report on measurements that are early indicators of student success and degree completion, such as retention rates: the number of students earning 30, 60 and 90 credit hours; and enrollments in education, STEM, and health sciences programs.