Trustees add five initiatives to Purdue strategic plan

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday (June 15) reaffirmed Purdue Moves as the university’s current strategic plan and added five initiatives to the plan to reflect several strategic updates.

Building on the original Purdue Moves plan, trustees voted to add online learning, data science, life sciences and three-year degrees as priority initiatives.

“The goal of Purdue Moves has always been to enhance the university’s extraordinary strengths and prepare it well for the future. These five initiatives are not new — our exceptional faculty are already making great strides in enhancing research and delivery in each of these areas,” said Purdue President Mitch Daniels. “Their addition to the Purdue Moves strategic plan formalizes our commitment to them and reflects decisions to deepen our investments in their expansion.”

The five added initiatives are:

• Online Learning: Fulfilling the land-grant mission in the modern era, Purdue will leverage the best and most successful instructional technologies with proven teaching techniques to become the world’s premier provider of online education. For adults who have not completed a college degree, those seeking advanced professional degrees or residential students adding an online course to complete their academic schedule, Purdue will provide the pathways and programs to ensure the success of each student, beginning with the launch of Purdue Global.

• Data Science: The Integrative Data Science Initiative (IDSI) will position Purdue at the forefront of advancing data science-enabled research and education by tightly coupling theory, discovery and application, while providing students with an integrated, data science-fluent campus ecosystem that will build data science fluency among all students.

• Life Sciences: Purdue will strengthen its interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to addressing the diseases and disorders that afflict our families by leveraging novel detection methods, diagnostics and therapies, and the expertise of the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, the Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology, and Infectious Disease, the Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery, the Purdue Institute for Plant Sciences, the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research, and the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering.

• Degree in 3: Purdue will increase students’ opportunities to accelerate their college education by expanding options for three-year degrees across Purdue’s system, modeled after the College of Liberal Arts’ successful introduction of three-year plans of study in September 2017.

• Purdue Polytechnic High School: Through the ongoing development of the Purdue Polytechnic High School in Indianapolis and future institutions around Indiana, Purdue will fully prepare high school students who otherwise might not have the opportunity for high-tech and STEM-related careers, fostering a new generation of skilled talent by seamlessly transitioning graduates from high school to college to career.

The Purdue Moves strategic plan was first announced in September 2013 as a set of priority initiatives designed to broaden Purdue’s global impact and enhance educational opportunities for Boilermakers, under four key pillars: Affordability and Accessibility, STEM Leadership, World-Changing Research and Transformative Education.

Under these four pillars fall 10 original initiatives:

• Freezing tuition and cutting costs.

• Expanding the College of Engineering.

• Transforming the College of Technology (now called the Purdue Polytechnic Institute).

• Strengthening and expanding computer science.

• Investing in drug discovery.

• Advancing plant science research.

• Changing how learning occurs.

• Engaging students with international experiences.

• Increasing success and value: living on campus.

• Becoming a year-round university.

 “As the needs of the world evolve, so does the role that Purdue will play in its future. We are confident these five new areas will be critical in the future American higher education, and we’re committed to making sure Purdue is at the forefront,” said trustees Chair Mike Berghoff. 

Sources: Mitch Daniels, president@purdue.edu

Mike Berghoff, trustees@purdue.edu