Strategic Plan Progress Report June 2012 Summary Two years into the implementation of the Douglas College strategic plan, Pathways to Success, over 500 voices helped: To identify accomplishments to date To assess the continued relevance of the goals from 2010 and potentially to modify them To determine priorities for the coming two years. This input came from such means as a survey of all employees, town hall meetings and feedback from external stakeholders. Of the 74 items in the strategic plan, at least some progress has been made on 62 of them. The most substantive progress seems to have been with respect to Seamless Learner Pathways and the Triple Bottom Line (financial accountability, social responsibility and environmental stewardship.) Overall, the College has made a good start towards realizing its strategies and the character of the College is beginning to change a momentum this midterm review was intended to help sustain. The scan of the external environment found that while there are significant developments that the College needs to keep in mind, including impending declines in the size of the traditional college-age demographic, nothing should cause Douglas College to rethink its current strategies for achieving its mission. All six of the goal areas in Pathways remain important and at any given time, at least some employees will be working on each of them. Nevertheless, the advice came through strongly that we should focus our efforts in the short term on three areas: Seamless Learner Pathways, Superior Teaching Quality, and Student and Employee Engagement. A vehicle for helping ensure good pathways for baccalaureate graduates into master s level studies, as well as for strengthening quality assurance processes through formative evaluation, will be to put policies and practices in places that would make Douglas College eligible for membership in the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. More opportunities for customized professional development will be provided at the Faculty level to foster engagement. Both campuses will be at capacity when the college completes its growth of 1,350 FTEs in 2014/15. Planning will therefore begin for the types of programs and services that could best be located on the old firehall site on 8 th Street in New Westminster that the College acquired a number of years ago. The overall message emerging from this midterm review is clear: Douglas College is on track and experiencing significant change generally for the better.
Introduction In June 2010, Douglas College approved the Pathways to Success: Douglas College Strategic Plan 2010-2015. In that plan, we established a bold vision for Douglas to become the largest and most progressive baccalaureate degree granting college in British Columbia. To achieve this vision, we set the ambitious goal of growing by 1,350 new FTEs, based on high demand existing programs and the development of new programs, with no new government money. This report is a midterm review: To identify accomplishments to date To assess the continued relevance of the goals from 2010 and potentially to modify them To determine priorities for the coming two years (recognizing that while all strategic goals all important, the organization only has the capacity to emphasize a limited number at a given time.) The review process included: Surveying all employees A town hall meeting at each campus Two dinner meetings with students External meetings with municipal and other stakeholders Input from the College Board Altogether, we heard over 500 voices on the strategic plan implementation and priorities going forward. The process was robust, discussions were passionate, and the College community expressed appreciation for its level of involvement in the strategic plan. Context The essence of strategic planning is in identifying the ways in which an organization can best accomplish its mission in light of its changing external environment. This type of planning is outward looking; focused on what the College should be doing, in contrast to inward types of planning concerning how goals are to be achieved. After taking stock of where the College is in terms of the goals we set ourselves in 2010, this document considers whether there are sufficient changes in our external environment to lead us to modify our priorities or aspirations. The review found that the College is well on its way to achieving its goals (with more progress in some areas than in others, as might be expected), and that while there are significant trends in our external environment, none suggest a directional change for Douglas. There were, however, some clear messages that emerged about priority activities for the short term priorities that represent a partial change in emphasis. Achievements to Date The Douglas College Strategic Plan enumerates six themes: 1. Seamless Learner Pathways 2. Superior Teaching Quality 3. Internationalization 4. Experiential Learning 5. Student and Employee Engagement 6. Triple Bottom Line (Financial Accountability, Social Responsibility, and Environmental Stewardship) 1
The Strategic Plan lists 74 specific strategic change items. (Further items were noted in the plan appendices.) Of the 74 specific items, as of October 2011, progress had been made on 62. Detailed progress updates on those items are presented in the appendix to this report. Major initiatives undertaken within the Plan include: Seamless Learner Pathways o The addition of new programs (degree and post-degree credentials). o The development of a Foundation Year in degree programs. o Enhanced partnerships with SFU and other post-secondary institutions. o Improved course transfer agreements in Science and Business. o The first phase of the steps required to become a receiving institution. Superior Teaching Quality o Review started on ways to recognize teaching excellence o Review of ways to enhance professional development o The growth of learning technologies such as videoconferencing Internationalization o The development of an implementation plan highlighting 3rd phase Internationalization (full integration and participation). o The growth of international student numbers to record high (while reducing dependency on international ESL students and on China as a source country) Experiential Learning o A reorganization of community partnerships to External Relations. o The development of a Center for Research and Innovation. Student and Employee Engagement o A renewed emphasis on student engagement (major renovation of the New Westminster concourse, launch of Doug Life, and strengthening of clubs and activities). 2
o person-based succession planning for employees, along with career and professional development Triple Bottom Line (Financial Accountability, Social Responsibility, and Environmental Stewardship) o o o o o o o o The implementation of activity-based costing (cost per FTE) to inform new program development and program revisions. The development of an innovative new funding mechanism for program expansion, where funds are allocated for ongoing program implementation prior to program launch but subject to FTE estimates being achieved. The move of CFCS to Coquitlam to provide better space and to accommodate some of the growth in New Westminster. The creation of a Foundation Plan for student bursaries and awards. The implementation of a multi-year budgeting framework (3 year). A commitment to Aboriginal students (Gathering Space, additional supports, an Aboriginal tactical plan). Technology upgrades (wireless, e-mail, stewardship model changes). Implementation of a new approach to decision making on all initiatives based on a project management approach to innovation/implementation. Further, the implementation of the plan called for the growth of 1,350 credit FTE and we are on target to achieve that goal. In 2011/12, we will achieve 102% of the Ministry target. Douglas projects being at 113% of the Ministry target in 2014/15, of which 93% will be attained through credit programs.. These figures do not include international student enrolments, which have also grown to record numbers (approximately 1,000 headcount locally and a further 1,000 at our offshore programs). Douglas College s Progress in Meeting Enrolment Targets 3
External Environment Postsecondary Education The public post-secondary education and training system in Canada and British Columbia has not changed markedly since 2009/10. The new teaching universities, created in 2007, were a source of concern for Douglas but they have not eroded our position or our growth. Europe and the USA have cut postsecondary education funding, and tuition increases are wide spread. These trends are emerging against a backdrop of a looming skills shortage worldwide and continued discussion about whether post-secondary education is a public or a private good. Public funding for BC post-secondary education has remained, in nominal dollars, flat for the past two (or more) years, amounting to a real dollar decline of approximately 4% (accounting for inflation). On the horizon are announcements of mandated system-level savings of approximately 1% of government grants at the provincial level. Nonetheless, the BC public postsecondary system remains healthy and relatively well funded. Douglas reliance on government grants is diminishing slowly (to 58% of operating budget) due primarily to increased revenues from Continuing Education, Contract Training, and International. This revenue growth in the face of flat government funding has facilitated our enrolment increases. Social and Economic Context The review of demographic information affirmed several points that were noted in 2010: There will be increasing competition between institutions for a declining demographic in the 19-24 age group. Internationalization increasingly begins at home. There is a need to draw from non-traditional student demographics. Similarly, the labour market review affirmed that in ten years, without significant changes in labour supply, BC will be facing simultaneously a skills shortage in the labour market and high unemployment. The skills shortage will occur in highly qualified occupations and the high unemployment will occur amongst those without post-secondary education and training. Combining demographic and economic information results in at least three matters of strategic importance: The need to increase Aboriginal post-secondary transitions The need to participate in immigrant integration The need to increase postsecondary transitions in general Conclusion The overall conclusion is that the external environment is providing opportunities as well as significant constraints for Douglas College. While we need to continue attending to it closely, nothing has emerged over the past two years that should cause Douglas College to rethink its strategies for achieving its mission. Immediate Priorities Through our strategic plan consultations with the College community, it is evident that all the goals in Pathways remain important and at any given time, at least some employees will be working on each of them. Nevertheless, the advice that came through strongly in our consultations and, in particular, in the survey responses from about 300 employees was that we should focus our efforts in the short term on two or three of 4
the six goal areas. These goal areas were a continued emphasis on seamless learner pathways, superior teaching quality, and student and employee engagement. The College has focussed on pathways and curricular/program quality over the past two years. Now the focus will turn to superior teaching quality, while continuing to attend to engagement issues. Seamless Learner Pathways An ongoing concern for former two-year colleges is that their new baccalaureate programs provide students with good access to graduate studies. Some Canadian research universities have resisted admitting such students. The strategy that other institutions have successfully employed to maintain graduate pathways for their students in light of the absence of a national accrediting body has been to become members of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. The AUCC has stringent eligibility criteria for membership, resulting in a greater willingness among members to accept each other s students. In supporting good pathways, the AUCC membership criteria refer to quality assurance mechanisms that involve faculty. By putting in place the various policies and processes that AUCC requires, Douglas can also use the membership process as a vehicle for addressing teaching quality and employee engagement. So while new program development and revision of existing programs will continue to emphasize seamless learner pathways, the College will devote explicit attention to becoming eligible for AUCC membership. Superior Teaching Quality Facilitating learning through good teaching is the College s core activity. Student feedback is already positive about instruction at Douglas College, so the goal here is to do even better in order to differentiate ourselves from our neighbouring institutions (institutions which also do well in terms of the quality of their teaching.) As the young adult population enters a period of decline, it will be increasingly important in a competitive environment for Douglas to excel in its core activity. In short, We re doing okay in teaching, but not great. We have room to grow, but fortunately we don t have far to go to become superior. Two areas will be emphasized in the short term to supplement the myriad activities faculty already employ to continually improve their theoretical and practical understanding of pedagogy: Decentralized Professional Development Despite offering a number of well regarded, college-wide professional development events, attendance in recent years has been small. Although interdisciplinary discussion is valuable, generic one-size-fits-all approaches have not had the desired impact. More effort and resources will be devoted to a closer to home approach, namely professional development customized to the situation in particular Faculties. With associate deans now in place, deans are now better positioned to shift emphasis from the managerial aspects of their job towards providing educational leadership. Centralized infrastructure support for professional development will continue to be provided to Faculties. 5
Formative Evaluation Despite the intrinsic motivation of wanting to be exemplary instructors and teaching excellent curriculum, Douglas College does not meet AUCC standards in terms of quality assurance processes for either individuals or departments. The College will consult with faculty to develop systems of formative evaluation for individuals that is decoupled from summative evaluation. Student and Employee Engagement Student engagement refers to academic and intellectual engagement, not only relationship building activities, e.g. using social media for students and faculty to discuss current events. A culture of big ideas and dialogue, of student effort and academic challenge, will prepare students not only for further study but for full participation in democratic society. For employees, the engagement goal is fuller participation in college life meaningful participation in a welcoming environment where people are not isolated. For faculty, this will include more opportunities to engage in research and innovation. More attention will be devoted to the needs of support staff. For both groups, students and employees, stronger linkages into the community will be encouraged. We re still not sure what is the best way to achieve this type of engagement, but some groups have been formed to address the topic, e.g. task force on research and scholarly activity and faculty development, and a working group of deans dealing with community connections such as internships, practica, service learning and cooperative education. Stay tuned. Longer Term Priority: Capital Planning When Douglas completes its growth of 1,350 FTEs in 2014/15 a key component of its strategic plan both campuses will be at capacity. This eventuality was anticipated a decade ago, leading the College to purchase land across 8 th Street in new Westminster in 2003 and 2005 when a firehall was closed. The time has now come to begin planning for the types of programs and services that could best be located there. In order to receive capital funding from government, Douglas will have to be not only very clear as to how the space would be used but also persuasive that those uses represent a qualitative improvement over current offerings (and not simply an expansion of what is already available.) It is in this context that work will begin on preparing a business case for use of the vacant land. Implementation Planning Beneath the umbrella of Pathways to Success, a number of other planning and review processes are helping the College identify more precisely how it will achieve its strategic goals. Conclusion In a nutshell, the message from this midterm review is clear: Douglas College is on track and experiencing significant change generally for the better. Attachment: Details on Goal Implementation 6