Institutional Strategic Planning Guidelines
SUBJECT: Institutional Strategic Planning Guidelines
SOURCE: Board of Regents Policy 205; Memorandum from Chancellor to Presidents, 11/13/02
POLICY
205 INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS: PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT
Each institution shall have a strategic planning process that maintains a current strategic plan in which institutional priorities are defined and through which the institution's mission is carried out in accordance with the strategic directions and guiding principles established by the Board of Regents. The faculty and staff of each institution shall be involved in developing the planning process and shall be included in the structure by which the plan is implemented.
In addition, each institution shall have a formal process by which systematic assessment of institutional effectiveness is conducted and the results of assessments are used to achieve institutional improvement. Assessment processes may differ from institution to institution, but each institution shall assess basic academic skills at entry, general education, degree programs, and academic and administrative support programs and/or functions. The faculty and staff of each institution shall be involved in developing assessment processes and included in the structure by which those processes are implemented and used for improvement.
Each institution shall link its substantive budget allocations and other major academic and administrative decisions to its planning and assessment processes to improve institutional effectiveness. In addition, institutional planning, assessment, and improvement processes are expected to contribute to the realization of the vision, mission, goals, and strategic initiatives of the University System of Georgia.
A current copy of each institution's strategic plan shall be maintained in the System Office of the Board of Regents. The plan will contain a description of the planning structure and process by which institutional priorities are set as well as the institution's current priorities and goals. The plan shall also describe the processes used for assessing and improving institutional effectiveness.
PROCEDURES
Introduction
Since the adoption of Section 205 of Board Policy, the current Board of Regents strategic plan, the preceding plan, Access to Academic Excellence in the New Millennium, the Board's policy directions and initiatives, and a broadly participatory and ongoing comprehensive planning effort, have further facilitated strategic planning within the University System.
Relationships Among Levels of Institutional Planning
These guidelines refer to strategic planning at the institutional level. Both operational planning and strategic planning conducted at the college, the school, the division or the department level should inform the institutional strategic planning process. However, an institution's strategic plan is not necessarily derivative of unit planning, and the institutional strategic goals are not a cumulative set of unit goals. Although effective strategic planning will usually incorporate most of the characteristics discussed here, there are numerous models for planning, and institutions have broad latitude in choosing an effective model that is suited to their institutional mission, values, and culture.
Purpose of Strategic Planning
Strategic planning culminates in a plan that defines institutional priorities and guides the institution in attaining goals related to those priorities as it carries out its mission.
Specialized Plans that Contribute to the Institutional Plan
Several strategic planning documents contribute to the overall plan. These specialized plans, produced by broad functional areas of the institution, are guided by the same vision, assumptions and environmental analyses; they operate within the same institutional priorities; and the goals they adopt may become, or will certainly be incorporated in, the institution's strategic goals.
One such area is academic planning, the process by which the institution determines the direction of academic program development in response to verifiable needs and deliberates potential changes in institutional academic policy. Another specialized area is campus master planning, the process that determines the institution's need for facilities construction and major renovation. Enrollment management planning has brought to institutions the expectation that future enrollments will be influenced in both size, configuration, and quality by deliberate recruitment and marketing strategies and the systematic management of enrollment in relationship to academic offerings. Other plans include a fiscal plan, to determine how the institution will fund its operations, and an information technology plan to guide the institution's development and use of information and instructional technology in support of the institution's priorities. All of these special forms of institutional strategic planning are inter-related, and all operate within the overall institutional strategic planning process, deriving direction from it and providing input to it.
The Planning Environment
Every institution's strategic planning context involves both internal and external environments. Those environments consist of such elements as the following:
| Internal Planning Environment | External Planning Environment |
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Vision and Direction
Institutional strategic plans usually begin with a premise about the institution and its future. That premise may take the form of a vision statement, a set of planning assumptions, or some other representation of where the institution is going in relation to where it is now.
The Environmental Fact Base
The elements that comprise each institution's internal and external planning environments, as well as the relative importance of each to its institution, will vary, but an institution-wide, research-based understanding of trends in those environments is essential to establish a baseline against which institutional progress may be ascertained. Some examples of internal and external data to be studied and interpreted include:
- Population: economic, educational, demographic and other data and trends.
- Student body: Characteristics such as enrollment, academic qualifications, demographics, progression, and other data and trends.
- Curriculum: Number of approved degrees and majors and degree conferral trends.
- Faculty: Demographic characteristics, credentials, tenure status, productivity data, age, turnover rate, seniority data and associated trends.
- Budget: trends and patterns in internal budget allocations.
- Continuing education and public service: Quantity, type and location of activities.
- Economic development: scope and location of efforts.
- Academic research: Revenue generated, disciplines and types of research.
- Alumni, foundation and development activities.
- Physical facilities: Data on quantity, condition, utilization, and deferred maintenance.
- Information technology and computer resources.
- Other: Relevance to the institution's current structure and operations is the only limit.
Involvement in the Process
BOR policy specifically requires that "The faculty and staff of each institution shall be involved in developing the planning process and shall be included in the structure by which the plan is implemented." Large institutions will devise ways for a representative participation in the process, while small institutions will be able to involve most of their faculty and staff in planning.
Elements of the Plan
Following the vision statement or planning assumptions, the following elements usually appear in the strategic plan:
- Planning Organization Chart: A diagram of the relationships between individuals, offices, and committees, with respect only to the operation of the strategic planning process (not the organizational chart of the college or university). This should be a graphic reply to the question: "What individuals and entities within (or outside) the institutions participate in the planning process, and how do they relate to one another in that process?"
- Narrative: A description of the manner in which planning is conducted at the institution, i.e., the philosophy, the flow of information, the various levels at which institutional priorities and goals are initiated, reviewed, and decided.
- Planning Cycle: A table, chart or diagram of the strategic planning cycle or schedule on which the strategic planning process operates at the institution.
- Planning Priorities: The broad areas of emphasis or major directions within which the institution will undertake new initiatives and deliberately target change. There normally will be a relatively concise list of institution-wide planning priorities.
- Goals: Specific, institution-wide, attainable achievements or milestones within established institutional priority areas. Most priority areas will have multiple goals.
- Action Plans and Schedules for Completion: Specific plans and strategies by which the strategic plan's goals are accomplished. Necessary tasks must be identified, assigned to individuals and offices, and a schedule for their completion agreed upon.
- Budget Linkages: A description of the manner in which institutional resource development and allocation is linked to strategic planning (not a description of the annual budget cycle). This element of the plan should answer the questions "How will we pay for this plan?" and "How will it affect internal budget allocation?" The plan should drive budget allocations.
- Supporting Data: Succinct summaries of relevant knowledge informing the strategic plan and the institution's future. Lengthy appendices of data are not needed in the planning document submitted to the System Office.
- Assessment Plan: A description of how the institution assesses basic academic skills at entry, student learning outcomes in general education and degree programs, and academic and administrative support programs/functions, as well as a description of how the institution uses the results of assessment to improve its effectiveness.
Evaluating and Updating the Strategic Plan
The ultimate success of the strategic planning process is the attainment of the institution's goals. The key to keeping the planning process on track, as well as to maintaining a current planning document, is active and systematic evaluation of goal attainment.
Evaluating and updating the strategic plan involves monitoring the completion of specific tasks and benchmarks in relation to the schedule, adjusting the schedule or reassigning tasks as necessary, and monitoring relevant changes in the internal and external planning environments. Changes in the environment may result in new goals and priorities. When the planning process makes significant adjustments, when schedules are extended, when goals are attained or new goals added, the planning document should be revised to reflect those changes.
When updates are made, the revised plan is sent to the Board of Regents, Office of Strategic Research and Analysis, for incorporation into the reference copy of the plan that is maintained there for use by the System Office.
Revised September 2004
Board of Regents
Office of Strategic Research and Analysis