Strategic planning in higher education: perceptions of faculty and administrators at public institutions

Over the past several decades, strategic planning has become ubiquitous in higher education. Yet, there are varying perceptions of its overall value. Perceptions of value are critically important as they can influence the effectiveness and breadth of participation in the strategic planning process, and such participation is widely held to be critical for success. We investigated these issues using an on-line survey distributed to faculty, chairs, and deans at public colleges and universities in the United States. We found that, compared to both faculty and chairs, deans had a more positive assessment of whether the benefits of the process were greater than the costs and were significantly more familiar with strategic plans. On the other hand, faculty indicated strategic plans had less effect on how they do their jobs, while chairs held a negative view as to whether the process led to meaningful evaluation and change. Interestingly, there were no significant differences between responses from baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral institutions. Although shared governance in the strategic planning process is widely endorsed, our work suggests that new approaches may be necessary to achieve the goal of an effective strategic planning process.