Georgia State University - Archived Mission Statement
This mission statement was superseded April 2008. Current mission statement
As the only urban research university in the state, the overarching goal of Georgia State University is to achieve a front-rank position among the nation's premier state-supported universities located in an urban setting. Educational opportunities are provided for both non-traditional and traditional students, fostering scholarly interactions among diverse people around compelling ideas and questions and blending the best of basic and applied inquiry, scholarly and professional pursuits, and scientific activity and artistic expression.
While students are attracted from all parts of the state, the nation, and many areas of the world, the downtown and satellite campuses provide access to quality education in particular for residents of the entire Atlanta metropolitan area. The University offers a welcoming academic environment to traditional students as well as working and returning students, with over half the students working full-time. This produces a mature, serious student body with considerable ethnic and international diversity and a high proportion (thirty percent) of graduate students.
Approximately 24,000 students are enrolled in a quarter and over 34,000 different students per year take courses for credit. Several thousand bachelors degrees are awarded annually in over 200 majors, as well as over 1600 masters degrees and 170 doctoral degrees. Georgia State University seeks to provide a range of curricular and co-curricular activities which prepare students to think critically, make ethical and informed choices, appreciate diverse cultures and ideas, become creative problem-solvers, and demonstrate responsible citizenship.
Careful selection of doctoral programs in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences has established strategically positioned centers of scholarly activity to enhance liberal education. Similarly, the University has established strong doctoral programs in business administration, economics, education, and nursing. More recently, the University's commitment to excellence in professional education has been underscored by the establishment of the College of Law, which, in addition to providing a full-time J.D. program, offers the only ABA-accredited part-time legal education in the state.
Certain programs in the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, and professional areas are nationally competitive for research grants from federal agencies. Georgia State University faculty have joined with colleagues from other institutions to enhance economic and scientific development in partnership with the Georgia Research Alliance. Areas of emphasis include vaccine development, design and synthesis of new drugs, protein production, environmental science, and telecommunications. Policy areas, including economics, education, health, crime, poverty, transportation and law, contribute to the base of knowledge and produce information that is useful in making policy decisions. National attention is garnered through programs in the Policy Research Center, the Language Research Center, the Economic Forecasting Center, and the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy.
The University's efforts in mathematics education have attracted significant regional and national attention and federal and state funding. Teacher preparation initiatives in this area as well as in the natural and social sciences, which are designed jointly by the Colleges of Education and Arts and Sciences, serve as a model of cross-college collaboration and fulfill national expectations for educational reform.
Georgia State University shares with the other research universities of the University System of Georgia the following core characteristics or purposes:
- within a statewide scope of influence, a commitment to excellence and responsiveness in academic achievements that impart national or international status;
- a commitment to a teaching/learning environment, both inside and outside the classroom, that sustains instructional excellence, serves a diverse and well--prepared student body, provides academic assistance, and promotes high levels of student achievement;
- a commitment to wide-ranging research, scholarship, and creative endeavors that are consistent with the highest standards of academic excellence, that are focused on organized programs to create, maintain, and apply new knowledge and theories, and that promote instructional effectiveness and enhance institutionally relevant faculty qualification;
- a commitment to public service, economic development and technical assistance activities designed to address the strategic needs of the State of Georgia along with a comprehensive offering of continuing education programs, including continuing professional education to meet the needs of Georgia's citizens for life-long learning;
- a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary academic programming at the baccalaureate, masters and doctoral levels, as well as a range of professional programs at the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate level, including the doctoral level.
Georgia State University will be characterized by:
- a supportive campus climate, necessary services, and leadership and development opportunities, all to educate the whole person and meet the needs of students, faculty and staff;
- cultural, ethnic, racial, and gender diversity in the faculty, staff and student body, supported by practices and programs that embody the ideals of an open, democratic, and global society;
- technology to advance educational purposes, including instructional technology, student support services, and distance education;
- collaborative relationships with other System institutions, State agencies, local schools and technical institutes, and business and industry, sharing physical, human, information, and other resources to expand and enhance programs and services available to the citizens of Georgia.
Georgia State University's identity as a nationally and internationally recognized advanced research and teaching institution as well as an urban research center will attract students from the metropolitan area, the region, all parts of the nation and around the world. It will offer the residents of Georgia a combination of programs and activities found nowhere else in the University System of Georgia, and it will be recognized for first-rate undergraduate and graduate education, leading-edge research, and committed public service.