IN AN INTERCONNECTED GLOBALIZED SOCIETY, A QUALITY EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE WILL REFLECT THE COMPLEXITY OF CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES, THE DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS AND WAYS OF THINKING, AND APPRECIATION OF DIFFERENCE. DePaul undergraduates deserve a rich educational foundation that exposes them to the diverse disciplinary perspectives and practices that the liberal arts cultivate. As technology and globalization transform our world, DePaul graduates will succeed by drawing on critical-thinking skills, intercultural and multilingual competence, and disciplinary breadth as well as the practical, problem-solving mindset that experiential learning instills. By fostering these skills and dispositions and better supporting student degree progress and career exploration, we will bolster students’ academic and professional success.
3.1 Ensure that DePaul prepares undergraduate students to be well-rounded critical thinkers and lifelong learners
A. Ensure the university upholds a shared commitment to broad-based liberal arts education as integral to students’ success in an interconnected global society.
B. Ensure that all graduates demonstrate core competencies and transferable skills (e.g., cultural agility; technological, information, and data literacy; computational thinking; critical and systems thinking; effective communication; and ethical and moral reasoning)
C. Increase the global perspectives and multilingualism of DePaul graduates.
3.2 Improve undergraduate students’ first-year academic success, as well as their retention, progress, and timely degree completion
A. Ensure that all instructors of first-year courses use effective classroom practices to improve long-term student success.
B. Enhance the freshman first-year experience to support successful transition to DePaul, inclusion in the DePaul community, and academic success.
C. Create college- or program-specific first-year experiences for entering transfer students to better integrate them into the DePaul community and their academic program.
D. Increase the use of high-impact practices in classes across programs, among them learning communities, project-based learning, e-portfolios, global learning experience projects, and supplemental instruction in targeted courses.
E. Develop programs that focus on the retention and degree completion of student populations most at risk.
F. Promote student health and wellness through improved communication and accessible evidence-based services and programs.
G. Leverage predictive analytics to identify students at risk of attrition quarterly and ensure intervention.
H. Improve overall student degree progress by using improved course scheduling analytics.
3.3 Enhance the value of the DePaul degree by improving student career readiness and outcomes
A. Develop a career exploration component in the undergraduate curriculum of every program.
B. Engage first-year students in career exploration.
C. Expand student and alumni participation in the Alumni Sharing Knowledge (ASK) program.
D. Expand the Educational Development Grant for Employability (EDGE) program to engage more students in career-oriented freshman internships.
E. Enhance the Career Center’s ability to help students become career-ready.
3.4 Expand the commitment to experiential learning, including service learning, student research, study abroad, and internships
A. Increase the number of students participating in internships through engagement with employers, alumni, and funders.
B. Enhance support for global learning, including study abroad.
C. Leverage the city of Chicago in students’ learning experiences.
D. Expand the numbers of international students on campus to enrich the learning experience for all students.
E. Increase opportunities for students to engage in research.