Graduate College Strategic Plan: Operational Excellence

Objective 1: The Graduate College will work collaboratively with other colleges and units in the interests of the University of Delaware to achieve the objectives of the Graduate College.

The Graduate College has an interest in working differentially with our colleges and other units because the University of Delaware’s decentralized model allows individual units to innovate. We will work in partnership with other units to maintain these strengths while achieving our goals.

Objective 2: The Graduate College will provide basic program-level support for all graduate programs.

Support for some basic operations including data sharing, professional development, community support and marketing of graduate education is uneven across the colleges. The Graduate College will fill these gaps by providing basic support for all graduate programs where it makes sense to do so.

Objective 3: The Graduate College will curate and share useful and empowering data about graduate students and graduate education to program directors, chairs and deans.

To make sound decisions and improve the quality of graduate education, UD’s graduate leaders and directors require robust data about all our graduate programs. The Graduate College will advocate for robust data systems at UD and will lead the effort to build useful reports and dashboards for campus leaders and directors.

Objective 4: The Graduate College will establish and maintain strong, effective and efficient communication ties with graduate education stakeholders on campus, including, but not limited to, graduate students, postdocs, faculty, graduate program directors, the Graduate College Council, the Graduate Student Government, the deans’ offices, the Division of Student Life and the Career Center.

Graduate and postdoctoral education and research involves the successful sharing of ideas between all stakeholders. The Graduate College will work with all representative bodies so that everyone has a voice in decisions that impact them and so that information and perspectives are communicated to those who most need them.

Immediate (AY21-22)

• Objectives 1 and 3 - Work with campus partners to develop appropriate technologies and data use policies for sharing data, either internally or externally.
• Objectives 1 and 3 - Identify gaps in data collection commonly requested in funding applications (e.g., graduate student disability data for NIH proposals) and determine appropriate mechanisms to collect such data.
• Objectives 2 and 4 - Create and curate a program director’s manual.
• Objective 3 - Create and maintain a graduate dashboard for administrators, program directors and other decision-makers.
• Objective 4 - Respond to all inquiries within two business days.

Mid-Term (AY21-22 through AY23-24)

• Objectives 2 and 4 - Create and curate a UD Online programs manual.

• Satisfaction survey of stakeholders to address effectiveness of data, data sharing methods/technologies and manuals. At a minimum, stakeholders include:
  • The Graduate College team (confidential to the dean)
  • Students (broken down by enrollment status [full time, part time] and demographics)
  • Chairs and program directors
  • Graduate program coordinators
  • Deans’ offices
• Measure response times for certain inquiries (e.g., inquiry receipt and response times/dates from email, chatbot, etc.).