National University 2023
Strategic Framework

Academic quality is paramount to student success. To best achieve this value, we offer a highly supportive student experience that guides learners on their educational journey to the completion of a degree or certificate program.

Contribution of new knowledge is central to the purpose of a modern university. Our valued commitment to innovating within higher education advances opportunities for our students, and all students, within higher education.

Partnering to meet the needs of students provides the most relevant and valued outcome. Whether with potential employers, community agencies, or partnering across disciplines within our own University, we are committed to working together toward student success.

We are enriched by the extraordinarily diverse student body, faculty, and staff. Diversity of background, orientation, and thought are necessary and valued elements of a learned society. We proactively seek and support diversity within our entire enterprise.

We believe that access to education is a fundamental right. Barriers to access can be finances, preparation, or simple logistics. We aspire to remove barriers to access as a means of creating social justice and a path toward a more productive life for our students.

• Ensure our ongoing dedication to academic quality, rigor, and integrity in teaching and learning
• Identify and support high-performance programs, and those with high-performance potential, for future growth opportunities
• Streamline our efforts to ensure we are clearly aligning programs with workforce needs in order to elevate student earning potential
• Facilitate an exceptional student experience through a state-of-the-art curriculum, delivered by our faculty experts, and the restructuring of our academic advising support systems

• Steward resources within the organization to address student needs without drastic annual tuition increases
• Create a more meaningful and interconnected student experience through integration and superior services from Academic Services, Faculty and Academic Affairs, Academic Operations, Center for Innovation in Learning (CIL), and Student Success
• Organize our colleges to deliver unique educational value and experiences
• Establish a separate Division of General Education to encourage more retention, innovation, and effective teaching to better serve diverse student populations

• Expand pathways to lifelong learning through community colleges and workforce partnerships; diversify the options through which students can obtain an affordable education
• Identify and promote our own internal academic pathways that extend from the undergraduate to graduate and doctoral levels
• Transform our ability as an open access institution to more effectively attract and retain our diverse student population
• Optimize our personalized learning approaches from point of entry to career placement advancement

As National University looks to the future, we are reorganizing our colleges, resources, and programs to more effectively and consistently address student success and outcomes. With the three-college structure, we will:

• Strengthen our position within a changing higher education environment
• Consolidate resources to improve student success and enhance the student experience
• Continue to invest in the colleges, departments, and programs that are at the core of National University’s vision, mission, and values
• Create academic pathways — from the associate degree to the doctoral level — to support lifelong learning

Since our inception in 1971, National University has focused on offering customizable academic experiences to meet the particular needs of a diverse student population. We are uniquely positioned to create new paradigms for the future through our ongoing Precision Education initiative dedicated to exploring new approaches and systems to meet students where they are, while simultaneously creating a customized pathway for their success, starting with our General Education curriculum. Combining the talents of our passionate staff, stellar faculty, and innovative technologies, we are dedicated to establishing a model for personalized learning that effectively blends high tech with high touch to:

• Effectively advance student success from point of entry to completion
• Support 21st-century learners by meeting their needs — any place, any time, any pace
• Develop a University-wide culture of innovation
• Establish NU as a recognized innovator in the higher education space
• Create a nationwide NU-based Innovation Hub

Get more information about our approach to Precision Education.

National University believes that General Education is the foundational core of the higher education experience and that there is a unique opportunity to recreate what this experience means for the adult learner. We will do this by identifying new approaches and pathways for adult learners through a newly reimagined General Education Division, housed in the College of Letters and Sciences, that aligns with our students’ personal and professional goals. By engaging faculty expertise across all three colleges, the newly created General Education Division aims to:

• Encourage greater retention, innovation, and effective teaching to better serve our returning adult learners
• Provide our returning adult learners more access to engaging, hands-on learning experiences
• Support students who bring relevant work, military, educational, and other experience through customized pathways and provision of competency-based credit

As part of this effort, we will create opportunities for students to complete projects and/or participate in other scholarly activities to demonstrate conceptual competency. We expect that over time these experiences may take the place of some traditional courses for many students, aligning with our overall efforts to create a fully personalized learning experience to better enable our diverse, returning adult student population to remain engaged and on track for degree completion.

National University faculty — both full-time and adjunct — bring professional and academic expertise into the curriculum they teach. The University supports faculty scholarship that reinforces these values. The contributions of our faculty are matched by staff members who provide a wealth of talent, important skills, and essential abilities that contribute to the overall mission and vision of the institution. National University seeks to be a “Best College to Work For” with a clear path to recruit, develop, and retain top talent. Our primary focus is on developing and supporting student success through the creation of effective and dynamic learning environments designed for faculty and staff to encourage personalized learning.

Our National University alumni represent a powerful network of more than 230,000 distinguished professionals, community leaders, and advocates who expand the reach of our mission and values. National University Alumni Affairs provides traditional alumni and student networking events, comprehensive career services, and mentoring support to current students and fellow alumni. The future NU alumni experience will be augmented through innovative and collaborative online technologies to bridge connectivity of the alumni network. NU alumni allegiance coupled with ambassadorship will support development efforts advocating for expansion of community and professional impact of our graduates to continually enhance institutional stature. The University’s esteemed accomplishments in the first 50 years establish the institution’s leadership position as an innovator in higher education, igniting and activating the dynamic and diverse alumni base with measurable and formidable results.