The mission of The University of Arizona is to improve life for the people of Arizona and beyond through education, research, creative expression and community engagement.
As a premier land‐grant university, The University of Arizona plays a vital role in building a thriving state. The University offers the highest quality education, excels in creating new knowledge that has worldwide impact, and provides leadership and collaboration to address the challenging issues facing Arizona, the nation and the world. The University is about quality, discovery, and opportunity. To better serve future generations, The University of Arizona will be one of the 10 best public research universities.
Academic Excellence: The University of Arizona must be a center for excellence in education and research. We must put people first. Our focus must always be on serving our students and supporting our faculty, professionals, and staff. An outstanding faculty is the foundation for academic excellence, attracting and educating the best undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Recruiting, retaining, and supporting outstanding scholar/teachers is our highest priority.
Access and Success: An education at The University of Arizona must prepare students for a productive future and must be accessible to all who are academically qualified. Economic or social status cannot be a barrier. The University must engage, retain, and graduate its students in the greatest numbers possible.
Quality of Life and Societal Impact: In keeping with the University’s land‐grant mission, The University of Arizona must serve as an engine for economic development and as a source of inspiration that enriches individual lives and advances the collective wellbeing of our society. Across every discipline, and on a daily basis, the University is improving the human condition for the people of Arizona.
In order to achieve our mission, vision and priorities, the UA has identified 4 major strategies. We have taken into account key elements of the context within which we function, the needs of the state of Arizona and the views of numerous internal and external stakeholders (through focus groups and individual interviews) regarding the strengths of the UA and the unique opportunities available to us. Key factors include: the extraordinary population growth anticipated for Arizona and the needs of the state for an educated citizenry; the diversity of our students in terms of cultural and socioeconomic background and academic preparation; the financial constraints within which we must function, especially the unusually limited support for financial aid provided by the state (in Arizona only 2.4% of freshman receive financial aid directly from the state compared with 27% nationally); the educational imperatives of ever increasing economic and cultural globalization; and the challenges Arizona is facing with regard to the health care and natural resources. We also recognized that we must build on our current strengths in interdisciplinary scholarship in general and in particular fields including but not limited to space exploration, water and environmental resources, biosciences and biotechnology, and Native American Studies. Further, we must develop the unique opportunities afforded by our geographic location in the desert and on the U.S.‐Mexico border.
We will collaborate with educational partners (P‐14) to prepare students for University success and support education in Arizona by preparing more teachers (especially in STEM fields), targeting underserved areas first. We will improve access by increasing enrollments and financial aid (both need and merit‐based). And we will serve our growing student population by providing integrated state‐of‐the‐art technological support.
We will educate all of our students to become creative, productive and engaged members of society by providing solid grounding in core skills, broad knowledge across disciplines, expertise in areas of special focus, and the ability to evaluate, integrate, and generate new knowledge. And we will respond to the state’s shortages of health care providers by expanding educational programs in those high priority areas. In doing so, we will expand course and major availability, improve retention and graduation rates, and improve our communications infrastructure.
We will build on our national leadership in interdisciplinary and collaborative research and lead the nation in research and outreach activities that are critical to our state’s future, with particular emphasis on the following areas:
We will contribute to the richness and vibrancy of the community, serve as an incubator and magnet for talent, develop partnerships with public, private and non‐profit sector organizations, and share research with and provide direct services to the people of Arizona through technology transfer, Cooperative Extension programs, development of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus and provision of clinical health care services throughout the state.
Download Full Plan, December 2007
All contents copyright © 2008. Arizona Board of Regents.
