From the Dean for Undergraduate Education

New Strategic Directions for DUE

Dan Hastings

In spring 2011, the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education (DUE) began a review of our 2006 Strategic Plan. The primary goal was to lay out new and refreshed strategic directions that advance DUE’s mission to “enroll, educate, and inspire some of the brightest students in the world with a passion for learning so they become the next generation of creative thinkers and leaders in a global society.”

Click here to view the DUE Vision and Core Values.

Since the 2006 plan was developed, the higher education environment and the nation as a whole has changed greatly, marked by extreme economic turmoil, demographic shifts, and continued pressure for efficiency and accountability. Internally, several new units were added to DUE at the request of members of Academic Council or senior officers; there have been changes in Institute leadership; the growth of several large international ventures; and new issues and priorities, such as the development of MITx. These factors pointed to the timeliness of renewing our strategic plan.

We engaged our mission partners in the review, notably the Division of Student Life, Office of the Dean for Graduate Education, Information Services and Technology, and the faculty, through the DUE Faculty Advisory Committee.  While the process reaffirmed many things we said in 2006, new themes, emphases, and needs emerged. For example, the DUE Faculty Advisory Committee emphasized the importance of improvements in the advising process while they and others suggested an increased emphasis in the role DUE plays in educational innovation.

With this as background, we developed a sharpened set of six strategic themes, each with an associated set of metrics and deliverables on a five-year timescale:

• Transforming Learning through Research, Best Practices, and Innovations in Pedagogy, Curricular Materials, and Assessment
• Catalyzing the Undergraduate Educational Commons: Maintaining Excellence, Increasing Innovation, Improving Communication
• Valuing and Leveraging Diversity, Benefitting from a True Meritocracy
• Leveraging Educational Technology for Educational Effectiveness and Change
• Empowering Students to Leverage their Experiences and Maximize their Confidence to Become Creative, Innovative, and Global-ready Leaders
• Evolving the Student Information System to Support a Dynamic Educational Experience for our Faculty, Students, and Staff.

These crosscutting strategic emphases allow DUE to focus our resources in the areas most critical to advancing education at MIT.

As we move forward in developing effective strategies that support our themes, it is imperative that we work closely with the faculty. The faculty and students are the key stakeholders in the delivery of effective education.

DUE is here to help enable us all to do the best for our students in giving them a great education, both the curricular and co-curricular pieces. We look forward to continuing to work with you.

I encourage you to view the DUE strategic plan on our Website where you will find the full description, key goals and metrics, and current initiatives for each of the themes.

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