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The George Washington University
Strategic Framework
Since the start of President Granberg’s presidency on July 1, 2023, the GW leadership team has been meeting with members of our community, including faculty, students, staff, alumni, and university partners, to identify GW’s unique strengths and areas of opportunity. Throughout these engagements, it has become clear that our university is well-positioned to begin the development of a new strategic framework that can guide GW’s future growth over the next five to ten years. The Provost’s office has been charged with operationalizing this process.
About the Process
The George Washington University has a long and proud history of educating our nation’s leaders, with traditional strengths in the social sciences, and emerging strengths in the basic sciences and health care. These strengths, coupled with our location in the nation’s capital, are the source of GW’s distinctiveness and distinguishability from other colleges and universities.
Through the strategic framework process, we aim to improve GW experience for all members of our community, to better leverage our extraordinary interdisciplinary strengths to change the world through education and research, and to build a community of adaptable and resilient global leaders who are prepared to take on the world’s biggest challenges.
The process will be driven by an Innovation Committee primarily comprising faculty, with input by a Steering Committee to assess recommendations. View the committee membership here.
Charting the Course
Laying the Foundation for an Exceptional GW
One part of the new strategic framework will focus on identifying critical investments in our community experience that will ensure GW provides an exceptional environment in which to live, learn, and work. Some of this work is underway, including significant investments in improving student life and career support and developing a new university budget model. However, we know there are other areas, such as IT, community engagement, research infrastructure, and physical facilities, where important work remains to be done. These opportunities will be identified throughout the framework development process and included in the final report.
Leveraging Our Unique Strengths and Future Opportunities
The second part of the strategic framework will focus on extending our aspirations well into the future, ensuring that GW continues to expand its impact as a preeminent institute for research while providing an educational experience that is both distinctive and of the highest quality. To do this, we have distilled and organized our future-focused conversations into themes around which we will focus our work.
Thematic Areas of Focus
The following themes provide a guideline for identifying unique areas of opportunity and innovation that the university can capitalize on in the years to come.
Advancing Impactful Knowledge Production Through Interdisciplinary Excellence
Reimagining Skill Development for the Future
Redefining Authentic Leadership for Modern Challenges
Turning Ideas into Action as a Premier Global Convener
Timeline
- February 2024
Announcement of strategic framework development - Early Spring 2024
Advance work: Future-focused conversations and special engagement sessions - Spring - Summer 2024
Strategic theme development
Board of Trustees endorses themes - Fall 2024
Research and Work Phase
Innovation Committee subgroups meet, review research and generate work product
Conversation Phase
Community conversations and special engagement sessions
Innovation Committee completes draft report for Steering Committee - Spring - Summer 2025
Deliverable Phase
Steering Committee distills the Innovation Committee’s draft report into final report of recommendations for review by the President and Provost
Strategic Framework presented to and approved by Board of Trustees
Implementation begins