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The George Washington University

Strategic Framework

 

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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. These committees will be announced in the near future.

 

 

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 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 community 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

 

More About Our Themes

 

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 thematic report
  • Fall 2024
    Research and Work Phase
    Innovation Committee subgroups meet, review research and generate work product
    Conversation Phase
    Town hall meetings 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