UHart Start
Our Goals
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Our Goals
The University of Hartford’s Strategic Action Plan is centered around six goals for our future. Find out how we chose them, what they are, and how we’ll measure our success.
Defining Our Plan
The University of Hartford arrived at its current position through dedication to core values that won’t change, but we face challenges that must be recognized.
Through careful study and far-reaching dialogue, our University community has identified key requirements for success in strategic planning.
Our Plan is:
- Inclusive: As the challenges we face affect all of us, our plan must incorporate the full spectrum of perspectives and needs represented within our community and must encompass all constituencies acting in concert to ensure successful and equitable implementation.
- Sustainable: Our plan must confirm our enduring belief in the basic organization of our current University, which has been intentionally built in this shape to support a community with shared commitments to the UHart mission, vision, and values.
- Actionable: To ensure we meet our challenge with urgency, enthusiasm, and accountability, our plan must include agreed-upon actions, with clarity on the specific roles, responsibilities, timelines, targets, and metrics involved in determining our success.
- Flexible: While our plan must outline the steps necessary to build on an already strong academic enterprise, it must also include the flexibility to incorporate changes and new ideas as we evolve, with the possibility to alter timelines in response to new opportunities.
- Goal-Driven: After engaging in an inclusive process that builds on our identity and highlights needed actions with flexibility, most of all, our plan must retain a consistent focus on our desired outcome: to ensure excellence and sustain success for the University of Hartford.
Our Six Goals for Strategic Action
Each of the six goals outlined in UHart Start will establish the University of Hartford as a beacon of ensured excellence and sustained success by 2025.
GOAL 1: Realize Our Student Commitments
Activity related to Goal One will focus on the academic rigor of our student experience.
We will:
- Rapidly evolve undergraduate and graduate curriculums and pedagogies
- Create a distinctive and rigorous University of Hartford student experience
- Prioritize the creation of an outstanding faculty dedicated to the University mission
Goal 1 Metrics of Success
- Total University enrollment
- Credit hours generated
- Enrollment in online and remote courses
- Enrollment in post-graduate non-degree programs
- New program enrollment
- Graduate student enrollment by program
- Student/faculty ratio
- Average class size
- Program review performance on external accreditation and internal reviews
- Trends in faculty development activities related to teaching and learning
- Trends in adoption of high-impact practices and other research-based pedagogies
- Trends in number of post-graduate, non-degree offerings
Goal 2: Commit Ourselves to the Success of All Students
Activity related to Goal Two will focus on our commitment to student success during and beyond their time at UHart.
We will:
- Deliver excellent career and graduate placement results for our students
- Provide exemplary support services and programs in a safe, nourishing environment
Goal 2 Metrics of Success
- Percentage of students in Honors Program
- Enrollment in courses, minors, certificates outside student home colleges
- Numbers of students in experiential learning activities, including practica and internships
- Undergraduate student participation in activities
- Graduation rate (4, 5, 6 years)
- Degree conferrals by college, degree level, and year
- First- to second-year retention
- Degree completions
- Exit survey, considering quality of education and instruction
- Exit survey, considering quality of career advising and mentoring
- Average student debt at graduation
- Percentage of students who participate in study abroad
- Performance on measures of integrative learning
- Performance on essential learning outcome rubrics: written/oral communications and critical thinking
- Engagement in phases of career development
- Results of National Survey of Student Engagement
- Collegiate Learning Assessment
- Student success post-University
- Increased post-baccalaureate career outcome rate
- Alumni survey (post five years), how well prepared for graduate school/first-time position
- Employment/education status upon graduation
- Post-graduation starting salaries
GOAL 3: Promote a Vibrant, Diverse, Inclusive, and Socially Just Community
Activity related to Goal Three will focus on bolstering our community’s commitment to equality on campus and beyond.
We will:
- Cultivate, develop, and educate an inclusive UHart community
Goal 3 Metrics of Success
- Student enrollment profile
- Percentage of first-generation students
- Percentage of international students
- Profile of students receiving financial aid
- Exit survey, sense of security and safety, sense of community
- Climate survey results
- Aggregate performance on Intercultural Knowledge Competence and Teamwork rubrics
- Profile of faculty by rank and appointment type
- Profile of staff by position type
- Profile faculty in leadership positions
- Promotion rates for faculty and staff
- Retention of faculty and staff
- Campus Climate Survey quantitative and qualitative results (every five years)
- Surveys and assessment measures following training, professional development, and initiatives
GOAL 4: Achieve and Maintain a Sustainable Budget
Activity related to Goal Four will focus on ensuring our University’s mission and vision stays rooted in sound financial practice.
We will:
- Develop practices that ensure accountability and predictability across campus
- Strive for sustained and predictable enrollment that sustains the business model
- Create, examine, and enhance revenue streams, including philanthropy
Goal 4 Metrics of Success
- Full-time undergraduate revenue as a percentage of total revenue
- Net full-time undergraduate revenue as a percentage of total revenue
- Full-time graduate revenue as a percentage of total revenue
- Net full-time graduate revenue as a percentage of total revenue
- Tuition undergraduate discount
- Tuition graduate discount
- Profile of other net tuition revenue as a percentage of total revenue
- Net room and board revenue as a percentage of total revenue
- Five-year change in operating revenue
- Five-year change in net tuition revenue
- Staff increment historical data and national salary benchmark progress
- Annual endowment returns
- Annual fundraising goals in all areas (unrestricted, restricted, endowment)
- Review of matching fundraising goals to institutional priorities
- Progress on comprehensive campaign initiative
GOAL 5: Revitalize the Physical Plant
Activity related to Goal Five will enhance, modernize, and beautify the on-campus experience.
We will:
- Create best-practice learning spaces, residential experience, and facilities
- Build a more environmentally sustainable campus
Goal 5 Metrics of Success
- Annual investment in instructional technology
- Annual investment in learning space renewal and redesign
- Annual and five-year progress on physical plant prioritization list
- Exit survey quality of learning and living spaces
- Facility Operating Index
- Facilities Condition Index
- Percentage reduction in campus carbon footprint
- Sustainability STARS index points
- Student housing retention
GOAL 6: Elevate Brand Identity, Positioning, and Strategy
Activity related to Goal Six will advance the profile and reputation of UHart on the global stage.
We will:
- Define and implement a compelling, consistent, and authentic brand identity
- Galvanize action by our audiences to meet learning, enrollment, and fundraising goals
Goal 6 Metrics of Success
- Application, acceptance, and yield rates
- Comprehensive, strategic marketing communication plans for schools/colleges and audiences
- Analytics on print and digital campaigns that effectively drive web traffic and conversions (enrollment, donors, etc.)
- Digital engagement on hartford.edu (tools, page views, bounce rates, time on page)
- Reach, engagement, and paid advertising dollars spent on social media platforms
- Improved visit attendance and experience—on campus and virtually—as recorded from attendance rates and prospective student surveys
- Market research results on UHart brand perception and recognition
- Increased University visibility: honors, awards, rankings, partnerships
- Number of media pitches and placements for University leadership, experts, initiatives, and programs
