Overarching Strategic Goals: Forward to Fifty

This strategic plan underscores the College’s commitment to the University of Houston's core values of innovation, collaboration and resilience. It acknowledges and emphasizes the basic tenants of the UH Strategic Plan to advance student success, nationally competitive research, social responsibility, nationally relevant athletics and competitive funding. The NSM Strategic Plan is similarly aligned with the UH goal of becoming a top 50 public university. With that in mind, the Forward to Fifty slogan has the dual meaning that includes planning for the 50-year anniversary of the College (2027) and achieving top 50 status as a public University.

Recruiting, developing and retaining the highest quality faculty is integral to our core mission. It goes hand in hand with excellence in research and teaching while maintaining a high level of leadership and service to the University and the broader community. We will enhance the development, leadership, transparency and recognition opportunities for our College's faculty and staff. Specific research goals are to promote, support and expand cutting-edge research in all areas of the College. We will actively support efforts to acquire new grants, strengthen the scientific environment and support research infrastructure to grow and enhance the level of the College's research productivity. In addition to internal efforts, the College plans to engage external consultants to evaluate current research efforts and to recommend pathways for achieving our goals.

A fundamental goal of the College is to support and engage a vibrant, robust, diverse community of students with high-quality, relevant academic, co-curricular and extracurricular learning opportunities. The student success efforts will focus on developing programs in growing career fields, expanding experiential learning opportunities in and out of the classroom, providing support for developing and implementing high-impact teaching practices, and providing timely academic and career advising through a variety of platforms and events. The College is committed to influencing the future of STEM in our community through outreach programs designed to stimulate interest in STEM careers and enhance the abilities of STEM educators.

To strengthen graduate programs, the College will recruit, educate and develop the highest quality students for advanced degrees while emphasizing breadth and future career placement. We are committed to preparing our students to become the next generation of innovative scientists and leaders in industry and academia.

Accomplishing these efforts will require a high level of organizational effectiveness in the areas of administration, communications and resource development. Business policies and processes must be robust, and facilities functions and IT services must be enhanced. Development and fundraising efforts will be critical to supporting student success, research and new programmatic opportunities. The reach of the College's brand will be expanded through increased and targeted communication regarding the College's outstanding programs and people.