Theme 1: Accelerate Academic Innovation to Meet the Needs of Students and Lifelong Learners
We must reimagine everything about how we educate and prepare learners — broadly challenging ourselves to move nimbly beyond our traditional approaches and lean into a culture of disruption, agility and change.
Like many higher education institutions, K-State is often challenged in how quickly it can adapt to meet the demands of the world around it, particularly when it comes to aligning educational programs with what employers and communities are expressing in real-time as key areas of need and ensuring graduates are uniquely positioned for immediate success. We now have an opportunity to think differently from other universities in how we more rapidly meet these needs, building an internal culture of innovation and disruption and leaning into our status as a land-grant institution that prioritizes external engagement at all levels. To do so, we will reimagine our structures, systems, processes, facilities, campuses and even credentials and degrees with an underlying focus on championing academic innovation and ensuring students remain at the cutting edge of their respective disciplines.
In the short term, this means building upon our exemplary student experience to offer applied learning opportunities for all of our learners, starting with integrating these experiences into the curricula for all our degree-seeking students. It also means implementing strategies that help achieve greater balance among our graduate student population by accelerating the growth of our Master’s programs and maintaining the strength of our doctoral-seeking student population, particularly as we work to achieve our bold research imperatives for 2030.
In the long term, this means considering how best to use our footprint to innovatively serve learners based on when, where and how they want to learn, such as exploring the potential of becoming a 12-month operating university or redefining the traditional higher education business model focused on the student credit hour. We recognize there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to meeting students’ needs. In doing so, we will approach this idea with flexibility, knowing what works in some disciplines and for some individuals may not work best for others.