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Strategic Framework

 

Future-Focused Conversations
Future-Focused Conversations

Future-Focused Conversations

 

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In the spring 2024 semester, leadership held a series of discussions on GW’s future in the form of virtual conversations open to all members of the community. These one-hour dialogues focused on several key areas: the future of work and the workforce, the future of higher education, and the future of knowledge. 

The dates of the conversations and questions asked are available below. A feedback form was provided online for anyone who could not attend a conversation or who had additional thoughts to share.

 

2024 Conversation Dates

 

   Full-Time Faculty Sessions

  • Wednesday, February 28
  • Thursday, February 29
  • Friday, March 1 
  • Tuesday, March 5 
  • Wednesday, March 6

 

   Part-Time Faculty Sessions

  • Monday, March 4 
  • Wednesday, March 6 

Questions

Please move beyond your discipline to think broadly.

The Future of the Workforce

  1. What do you think your students (especially undergraduates) need to know five to ten years from now that they don’t know now?
  2. What skills do you think your students (especially undergraduates) will need to have five to ten years from now that they do not have today?

The Future of Higher Education

  1. What sorts of intellectual issues is GW best positioned to explore? How can we make an impact?
  2. How do you see your role as a professor changing in the next ten years?
  3. Do you think research will have the same place — or a different place — in our endeavors ten years from now?
  4. What is the most serious threat GW faces when it comes to competition in the field of higher education?

The Future of Knowledge

  1. What do you see as the most exciting/challenging intellectual issues today? What possibilities are provided by exploring those issues?
  2. How do you think our fields of inquiry will have changed ten years from now? Why?

 

 

   Student Sessions

  • Monday, March 4
  • Tuesday, March 5

Questions

The Future of the Workforce

  1. What do you hope to gain from your education at GW?
  2. What skills do you think you will need in order to be successful in your career?
  3. Where do you expect to be five years from now? What will you be doing? What will you have accomplished?

The Future of Knowledge

  1. Why did you choose GW? Was it the right choice?
  2. What is your biggest frustration at GW?
  3. What about your experience here excites you? What surprises you?
  4. If you could change one thing about GW, what would it be?
  5. GW is an AAU university, which means research is a big deal here. Does that make any difference to you?
  6. What should the college experience be five years from now?  How is it different from the college experience today?

The Future of Higher Education

  1. What new ideas are particularly interesting to you now?
  2. What ideas do you think will be important to explore five years from now?

 

 

   Staff Sessions

  • Monday, March 11
  • Tuesday, March 12 
  • Thursday, March 14
  • Tuesday, March 19 
  • Thursday, March 21

Questions

The Future of the Workforce

  1. Does it make a difference to you that you work at a university? Why or why not?
  2. Are you studying anything here to advance your career?
  3. What skills would make you a more effective employee five to ten years from now?
  4. What do you think students (especially undergraduates) need to know five to ten years from now that they don't know now? 
  5. What skills do you think students will need to have ten years from now that they don’t have today?

The Future of Higher Education

  1. Does it make any difference to you what academic or co-curricular initiatives GW undertakes?
  2. Do you imagine doing your job differently in five to ten years? If so, how and why?
  3. What sorts of intellectual issues is GW best positioned to explore? How can we make an impact?
  4. Do you think research will have the same place, or a different place, in our endeavors ten years from now?
  5. What is the most serious threat GW faces when it comes to competition in the field of higher education?

The Future of Knowledge

  1. What do you see as the most exciting/challenging intellectual issues today? What possibilities are provided by exploring those issues?
  2. How do you think our fields of inquiry will have changed ten years from now? Why?

 

 

 

  Alumni Sessions

  • Multiple sessions throughout April

Questions

The Future of the Workforce

  1. What are the most important skills you acquired at GW?
  2.  In your field of work, what skills do you see being most relevant five to ten years from now?
  3. In what ways did your GW education help advance your career?

The Future of Higher Education

  1. If you were to return to GW now, what would you do differently?
  2. What would you like GW to do differently to prepare students for the future?
  3. What are the biggest challenges we will face ten years from now? 

 

 

 

 

Summary Report

Based on the information that has emerged from the future-focused conversations, we are pleased to share a summary report that summarizes what we learned and begins to bring into focus the major ideas and commonalities expressed among constituencies.

View the Report