Villanova University’s Strategic Plan: “Inspiring the Mind, Igniting the Heart, Illuminating the Spirit” Defining the Next Era of Excellence at Villanova University

Faculty & Community Forum Strategic Plan Presentation

Villanova University has enjoyed a period of great strength, with continued growth in the caliber of our students and faculty, the quality of our university community, and our contributions to society. Our prestige and performance are at an all time high, by almost any measure. In the past few decades, we have outpaced our traditional regional competitors, and have taken steps toward building a national reputation. Today, our strong College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and our high-quality professional schools – plus our values, community, and personal attention – provide Villanova with a distinctive value proposition for prospective students and faculty.

Our progress has also put Villanova in a unique position in the higher education landscape. While we are not a national research university with extensive PhD programs, we are also not a pure liberal arts college. This challenges us to define and communicate a clear value proposition vis-à-vis other top schools. With this in mind, the University’s Strategic Plan Steering Committee – a group of 30 administrators and faculty – began an effort this year to chart our course for the next decade and beyond. We engaged community members as part of the process, including the Board of Trustees, over 150 faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and other constituencies. To further inform our charge, we conducted market research with prospective students to understand their perception of Villanova.

We have approached this task not content to simply maintain our current position. We are committed to continuing to improve our position in higher education, while preserving what is distinctly “Villanova,” particularly our Catholic and Augustinian traditions, including excellence in teaching, intellectual exploration, and service to others.

As we look ahead to the next era of excellence, we recognize that accomplishing our goals will require that Villanova continue to improve our performance. Increasingly, we will have to compete with other top tier universities – institutions that we call our “aspirational peers” because we aspire to effectively compete for cross-admitted students. We also know that the dynamics of higher education are changing rapidly, and that the financial resources we need to compete for top students and faculty are rising dramatically. Our current and aspirational peers are not standing still; they are making significant new investments and raising the bar in the competitive landscape. Top-tier students and faculty have many choices. Therefore, our strategy must clearly define the type of student and faculty we want to attract, and the value proposition we offer to persuade them to join us at Villanova.

The accomplishments of our past and the challenges we see ahead have convinced us to set a 10-year vision defined by two mutually reinforcing goals: pursuing excellence in teaching and vibrant research, and making a purposeful effort to enhance our national reputation as a leading university. Our vision:

Villanova University will provide its students with a uniquely engaging academic environment, characterized by a strong liberal arts foundation, exceptional professional schools, and distinctive interdisciplinary studies. We will enroll increasingly high-caliber students, and successfully educate the whole person through values-driven learning and a commitment to service in the Augustinian and Catholic tradition. We will provide unsurpassed levels of personal attention to our students. Our faculty will remain committed to outstanding teaching and increased scholarship. Villanova will be recognized as a top-tier national university and a pre-eminent Catholic university that prepares its graduates for success throughout their lives in the global environment.

To realize this vision, we will focus on executing five strategies:

1. Strengthen our academic programs by innovating the undergraduate liberal arts curriculum and approach, further building on distinctive interdisciplinary programs and centers of excellence, and enhancing our contribution to society through scholarly research.
2. Increase enrollment of top-tier students through greater personalization of our recruitment efforts, expanded and improved financial aid, and an increased focus on diversity.
3. Make select investments to grow our present PhD programs, including possibly adding one or two more programs, and improve performance on national educational benchmarks to attain a top 40 national ranking in the National Universities category.
4. Communicate Villanova’s distinctive identity and value proposition more effectively to prospective students and their parents, prospective faculty, alumni, peers, and employers.
5. More actively and aggressively engage the full Villanova community in building the financial resources and facilities necessary to achieve our vision.

These strategies will require significant financial investments (both operating expense and capital) totaling between $500 to 600 million over the coming decade. We are confident that we can achieve our goals and make our vision a reality. We also recognize that this will require great effort, including the full commitment of Villanova’s, faculty, administration, alumni, students, and parents.

Executing successfully in pursuit of our vision will help ensure that:

• We continue to live and espouse our mission.
• We continue to have talented students, faculty, staff, and alumni actively engaged in a dynamic community of learners, dedicated to intellectual exploration and service.
• The value of a Villanova education is indisputably recognized as among the best in the world.
• Our yield of best-performing admitted students climbs towards the levels of the highest caliber institutions.
• The number of top-quality applicants grows significantly, and they are increasingly diverse in geography, race, and socioeconomics.
• Prominent and high-potential faculty increasingly choose Villanova.
• Our research contributions are well-regarded and inform the challenges of the day.

Thank you for attending the Faculty and Community Forums conducted in October. As stated we welcome input and active participation as we continue our strategic planning work. As we move forward I look forward to to your participation and active support as we define the next era of Excellence for Villanova University by “Inspiring the Mind, Igniting the heart and Illuminating the Spirit” so we can be the best Villanova we can possibly be.

 

Father Peter Donohue
President