Institutional Strategic Planning Research Articles

Mission Impossible? Access and the Dash to Growth in British Higher Education

AbstractAccess is a central issue in the debate about the future shape and characteristics of the post‐binary system of higher education. It is seen as crucial to the shift towards a more open, mass system. This paper examines commitments to access in the contents of institutional missions and strategic plans. The results of our analysis suggest a widespread concern to be involved in the access process. However, we also reveal substantial differences in emphasis between the older universities, ex‐polytechnics and colleges that comprise the post‐binary system. On the basis of present institutional planning it would appear that access is frequently seen as an addition to, rather than a replacement of, the commitments of the binary era. Our evidence suggests that a fundamental shift of ethos within the system as a whole may be some way off.

The challenge of chief student affairs officers: Planning for the future

AbstractChief student affairs officers should play a leadership role in institutional advancement activities because, as members of the top‐level administrative team, they help determine how to implement institutional missions and strategic plans. Therefore, student affairs administrators should include institutional advancement activities in their job descriptions.

A Survey of Occupational Therapy Curricula

Cross-sectional surveys were conducted of occupational therapy professional and technical programs. Part 1 describes general studies and prerequisite requirements for an entry-level baccalaureate degree in occupational therapy. Part 2 presents general studies, prerequisites, and technical curriculum of the occupational therapy assistant programs. Program directors design and manage professional programs based on their knowledge of academia, higher education, accreditation essentials, and consumer needs. Descriptive data of educational prerequisites and curriculum content are used in program evaluation and planning for accreditation, institutional strategic planning, marketing, projection of future needs, and facilitation of communication between curricula.

Institutional racial discrimination, strategic planning and training in the Prison Department

Abstract This article reviews efforts by the Prison Service to counteract racial discrimination within the Service, focussing in particular on the programme to train the race relations teams of individual penal establishments. It is argued that trained teams score over untrained teams on a number of fronts, exhibiting greater perserverance in their efforts and a higher rate of action plan implementation. The article concludes with five suggested measures of success in ensuring equitable treatment of all ethnic groups within the prison system.

Strategic Planning for Institutional Pharmacy Administrators

Strategic planning is an extremely valuable long-term planning tool. It is essential for an organization's survival in a rapidly changing, turbulent environment. For institutional pharmacies to survive and possibly grow, strategic planning must become the pharmacy director's principal long-range planning tool. In spite of the importance of strategic planning to institutional pharmacies, there have been few documented case studies of institutional pharmacy strategic planning. Further, there has been little research on institutional pharmacy strategic planning. Additional research is needed to determine the extent and quality of institutional strategic planning and to determine why this essential tool is or is not bemg used.

Getting the facts, analyzing the data, building the case for institutional distinctiveness

AbstractInformation in a search for institutional distinctiveness can be garnered through institutional histories, needs assessments, institutional impact studies, marketing studies, and strategic planning studies.

Issues management in strategic planning

The concept of issues management is gaining the increasing attention of both researchers and practitioners in the field of strategic planning. Issues management—which is concerned with the identification, analysis, probability, and timing of a developing issue and with the organizational response—can spell the difference between the success and the failure of the planning effort. This paper delineates the attempt of a major public university to integrate issues management into the institutional strategic planning process. The intent is to make issues management an ongoing and systematic organizational exercise.

Editor's introduction: Institutional research and strategic planning

AbstractTwo question—“What does strategic planning involve, and what is the role of the institutional researcher?”— are addressed, and a preview of the following chapters is presented.