The Michigan Tech Plan: Our Vision

I. OUR VISION

Michigan Technological University is in many ways a unique institution of higher learning. From its beginning as a small focused college in 1885, Michigan Tech has evolved into a university offering a range of programs in science, engineering, technology, business, forestry, and special aspects of the humanities and social sciences. In continuing this evolution, we want Michigan Tech to become a national university of choice. In defining our vision and outlining a strategic plan to achieve it, we must answer four questions:

1. What does it mean to be a national university of choice?
2. Why is this the right thing to do?
3. Will it improve the education we provide?
4. What steps do we have to take?

1. What does it mean to be a national university of choice?

For students: Students from around the country and the world choose to come here because of the excellence of our faculty, educational programs and laboratories, research, our student/faculty ratios that allow for pervasive, discovery-based learning activities, and the quality of life on our campus.

For faculty: Faculty from the very best universities choose to come here because of the excellence of our students and educational programs, our facilities and infrastructure that will allow them to create and disseminate knowledge, and the quality of life within the University, the community, and beyond.

For staff: Staff will choose to come here because of the excellence of our facilities, the reputation and integrity of the faculty and administration, the professional development opportunities available, and the quality of life on campus and in the community.

For external partners: Corporations and enterprises from around the country choose our students because they have received a rich and relevant technological education that emphasizes liberal arts, business processes, people skills, innovation, creativity, and leadership within a diverse campus community. Industry and government agencies from around the country will identify our students and our research as outstanding, all leading to our inclusion on more company "select lists" as opposed to only "interview lists."

Reaching this position of being a university of choice will differentiate Michigan Tech from other regional colleges. It will make us more competitive in the region from which we draw the majority of our students. We will attract a significantly greater number of some of the best high school students from outside of this region, and we will significantly increase our ability to attract the best graduate students both nationally and internationally. In realizing our vision, we must be recognized as one of Michigan’s research universities (tier 1) and as one of the nation’s research universities.

2. Why is this the right thing to do?

For many years, Michigan Tech has enjoyed its role as one of the few choices for prospective students from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota interested in science, technology, and engineering. We attracted relatively few students nationally. More recently, many other colleges and state universities in Michigan that are closer to home for many students have begun offering engineering and technology education. This has resulted in greater competition for the students in the upper Midwest. At a national level, competition for the best students is also greater. These pressures have prompted the University to intensify its marketing activities, even as it assesses its vision and identity.

However, most of the new competing programs in Michigan are different than Michigan Tech in that they are not based in doctoral-granting, research-oriented departments where much new knowledge is created. New opportunities for research and education within and among disciplines have never been greater. Technology is expanding at an explosive rate. The advantage of a Michigan Tech education is that many new discoveries have almost instant practical application and the rate at which new discoveries become translated into education has increased dramatically. As a result, Michigan Tech has pursued a vision, seeking to transform itself from a primarily undergraduate teaching institution into a university with solid graduate programs and sponsored research endeavors that are synergistic with undergraduate education.

Michigan Tech will be successful if it can transform its traditionally narrow technological core competencies into science, technology, and business competencies, and if it can continue to blend research and scholarship together with education into a new learning environment. This new learning environment must educate, as never before, engineers and scientists who understand business and business leaders who understand technology. New high demand areas are in communications, computing and information technology, biotechnology, smart materials, and environment and resource sustainability. These are reflected by the fast-growth industries in e-commerce, internet, web applications, micro- and nano-technology, biotechnology, industrial ecology and sustainability. Faculty members who are actively engaged in the creation of knowledge will stay current in their course offerings.

3. Will it improve the education we provide?

In most fields and disciplines, discovery-based learning with faculty as coaches and mentors needs to replace the traditional lecture as the basic means of instruction. To stay current and adopt new methods while creating excitement and magic that we want in our teaching, courses, and programs, Michigan Tech must have faculty who are not only teaching but creating new knowledge. To educate students who will become innovative and creative leaders, the faculty members teaching them must be innovative, creative, and leaders in their fields - there can be no compromise on this point. Excellent students demand excellent faculty, and we must have excellent staff to support the breadth of the learning environment.

This does not mean we will abandon the past strengths of Michigan Tech. In developing the scholarship and graduate programs that advance this effort, we must continue to seek balance and integration. Balance means we will never allow our research to compromise our educational programs. Integration means that we will strive to involve all of our students in the research enterprise and thereby improve their educational experience. Scholarship and education are inextricably linked. The question is no longer whether we will be a university dedicated to teaching or a research university: we must be an institution of learning.

4. What steps do we have to take?

To take the next step in developing Michigan Tech beyond this regional reputation, we will have to make changes. We can no longer be known simply as an undergraduate engineering school.

We must build recognition and reputation for the wide array of engineering, scientific, business, and technological activities that make this campus an outstanding technological university. This includes broader recognition of excellent educational and research programs in the College of Sciences and Arts, School of Forestry and Wood Products, School of Business and Economics, and School of Technology. This recognition will attract larger numbers of undergraduates to fields outside the traditional engineering areas.

We must optimize ratios of undergraduate and graduate students to faculty in all areas of the campus. This is not only a requirement of research-oriented programs, but also a necessity for the active, discovery-based learning we seek for all educational programs.

We also must insure that students appreciate the diversity of humanity. Globalization is no longer simple rhetoric, but a fact of business. We must encourage students to learn languages and be involved in international exchange programs and internships as well as increasing the numbers of international students on campus.

Together, these steps will increase the cost of undergraduate education. A technological university, which requires first-class technological equipment and laboratories, has very few low-cost programs. At Michigan Tech, high-cost science, engineering, and technology programs enroll the majority of the student body. Because state funding is decreasing as a percentage of the University budget, it will not be possible to maintain the necessary facilities and equipment, lower the student/faculty ratio, and still charge the tuition rate of a regional undergraduate university. This situation creates a dilemma for Michigan Tech, which has always prided itself on its accessibility to students from families of modest means. In order not to lose this heritage, the University must aggressively pursue external funds, especially from alumni and other sponsors, in support of need-based scholarships and other forms of financial assistance. We can increase tuition but still be perceived as offering great value for the money if we place true value into the educational process. There are very few instances where quality and cost are not connected and even fewer cases where quality is not worth the price. In essence, Michigan Tech must do what some other universities have done. To thrive in the face of decreased state funding they developed a clear strategy of privatization by shifting to an increased emphasis on other sources of revenue, i.e., tuition and fees and gifts and contracts.

We also will see changes in our graduate education efforts. Currently, graduate students make up about 10 percent of the student body. A common trait of nationally recognized technological universities is a graduate student population of at least 20 percent of the total student body in which about one-half are doctoral students. While the optimal enrollment mix has to be determined, it is clear that we must increase the number of graduate students on campus and double the number of doctoral students to meet our goal of being a recognized research university. Success also requires a combination of increased faculty research based upon external sponsorship, and expanded advancement activities. Enrollment in currently under-subscribed programs needs to increase. Finally, since most of the emerging areas of critical need are at the interface of the traditional disciplines, more and more of the scholarship of these students and their faculty mentors will be interdisciplinary efforts.
We can achieve our vision if we carefully focus new and existing efforts to improve Michigan Tech so that it becomes a national university of choice. Defining our strategies to accomplish this is the heart of this plan.

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