Pursuit of Academic Excellence for Human Well-being
Theme Leader
Dr. Douglas Woods
Vice provost for graduate and professional studies and dean of the Graduate School
Goal Statement
Advance Marquette as a highly ranked destination university, renowned for academic rigor, high-impact educational experiences, innovation in teaching and learning, and achievement of its community of scholars.
Tactics
Continue to assess and improve the quality of our academic programs through a comprehensive program review process.
Achieve optimal enrollment growth and yield of good fit students through the development and implementation of a unified and strategic enrollment management plan to reach a national and international market.
Revise and deliver a core curriculum that serves as the foundation for the formation of mind and heart and prepares students for lives of meaning and well-being in the 21st century.
Promote signature undergraduate and graduate programs.
Develop, offer and promote innovative interdisciplinary programs that meet the needs of our students as they enter the global society.
Ensure appropriate learning contexts for courses defined by intensive learning assignments and extensive faculty-student engagement.
Identify the needs of and ensure academic support opportunities for students, especially higher-at-risk, first-generation and underrepresented students.
Continue to prepare students for post-graduation outcomes, including job placements, educational advancement into graduate or professional schools, fellowships, service opportunities, or other opportunities that meet their career aspirations.
Refine and strengthen the continuous improvement of academic excellence, in and beyond the classroom, through outcome assessment of both curricular and co-curricular experiences and the requisite faculty and staff development in these areas to effectively assess student learning.
Tactics
Establish an infrastructure of support and resources for faculty, instructors and student development staff to encourage the offering of quality high-impact educational experiences.
Develop scaffolding opportunities for high-impact educational experiences, beginning with a first-year learning seminar and living/learning communities, evolving to opportunities for study abroad, service learning, undergraduate research, internships and, where appropriate, capstone experiences.
Develop frameworks for students to leverage, document and intentionally integrate their high-impact educational experiences within the trajectory of their chosen careers and to develop lives of meaning.
Encourage curricular innovation by faculty and departments, especially innovations that dovetail high-impact educational experiences with the Core of Common Studies.
Tactics
Maintain and, where appropriate, enhance the fixtures, technology and physical equipment/devices to facilitate multiple modes of learning in classrooms.
Cultivate an appreciation of teaching excellence with appropriately targeted resources and learning opportunities for faculty, instructional and student development staff that enhance their teaching effectiveness by incorporating evidence-based best practices into their curricula.
Provide strategic material, technological, and pedagogical support for faculty, instructors, and student development staff so they may enhance their use of digital learning technologies for flipped classrooms, hybrid, and online learning across the curriculum and beyond the classroom.
Make available appropriate equipment, tools and support for students engaged with digital media in their learning.
Ensure that all faculty, including contract/contingent faculty, have adequate support for instructional excellence at Marquette, with departments having meaningful conversations about best practices in teaching and learning.
Tactics
Increase the visibility of our community of scholars by encouraging, supporting, tracking, and promoting peer reviewed publications and presentations by our faculty, staff and students.
Provide support and incentives for faculty to seek, apply, and obtain faculty awards and recognition (professional fellow status, professional service recognition awards, etc., at a national level).
Involve faculty and students in academic social media sites such as Google Scholar and ResearchGate.
Enhance the visibility of our community of scholars by hosting conferences, increasing media coverage of scholarly activities, promoting the expertise of our faculty and staff, and disseminating information regarding these achievements and expertise to external constituencies.
Achieving Beyond Boundaries
Metrics
Associated with this theme are several key metrics, which help us assess our progress in achieving the goal and understand how we compare to other universities. For each metric, Marquette’s value is shown over time including, if available, a comparison to a referent group of 22 universities comprising both peer and aspirational schools. As the university is launching a new strategic planning effort, these metrics will no longer be updated. A new peer/aspirant group was developed by the Beyond Boundaries Steering Committee in 2022. The metrics below still reference the old referent group and will not be updated with the new peer/aspirant group.