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Utah Board of Higher Education Strategic Plan

Access

Completion

Financial
Value

Economic
Development

Our Vision

Utah is an innovative global leader in providing world-class higher education and advancing research that enhances the quality of life in the state.

Our Mission

USHE operates cohesively across the state’s 16 public colleges and universities to provide valuable education that meets workforce needs and enhances the wellbeing and prosperity of all Utahns.

View Our Progress

2024-27 Strategic Plan

The Utah Board of Higher Education approved its 2024-27 Strategic Plan on August 30, 2024, marking a significant milestone in the state’s ongoing efforts to enhance the quality and accessibility of higher education.

The plan aligns with the Board’s vision to become a global leader in higher education and research. It also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between higher education institutions, industry partners, and state agencies. By fostering these partnerships, the Board aims to ensure that Utah’s higher education system is not only responsive to the current needs of students and the workforce but also proactive in addressing future challenges. 

Access

Increase the college-going rate of high school grads by 3% by the conclusion of academic year 2026-27.*

Strategies & Tactics

  • In coordination with the Utah State Board of Education and key government and industry partners, ensure the successful deployment of the First Credential Program.
  • In coordination with the Utah State Board of Education and other stakeholders, develop and implement comprehensive practices that ensure more K-12 students and adult learners pursue additional education after high school and enhance their career opportunities.
  • Adopt a statewide tool that comports with the Board’s statutory responsibility to prioritize common applications and direct admissions. Create an effective governance and collaboration model to promote use of the tool and develop and report measurable outcomes related to the tool’s impact on improving postsecondary access.
  • Improve transactional data movement to support student transition to higher education, including facilitating the movement of data between high school students and institutions to improve the accuracy and efficacy of student record matching.
  • Study why non-USHE graduates in specific high-wage, high-demand fields chose to attend institutions outside the System, and utilize findings to improve responsiveness to student needs.

*This access goal uses academic year 2021-22 as the baseline, when the share of Utah high school graduates who enrolled in a USHE institution within three years was 53.65%. This access goal also informs performance funding. Visit ushe.edu/attainment-dashboards for data visualizations.

Completion

Increase timely completion of degrees and awards by 3% by the conclusion of academic year 2026-27.*

Strategies & Tactics

  • Assist and incentivize institutions to develop appropriate sub-120-credit hour bachelor’s degrees.
  • Facilitate transfer and completion among institutions within the System by strengthening credential progession, requiring meaningful articulation, and completing the transition from clock to credit hours in technical education.
  • Incentivize timely completion by ensuring that performance funding is invested in interventions that advance progress toward institutional timely completion goals.
  • Implement consistent practices for the awarding of credit for prior learning, including training of faculty and staff, and annual institutional reporting of credit awarded.
  • Assess the impact of credit for prior learning on student enrollment and completion.
  • Ensure individuals capitalize on credit for prior learning opportunities.

*This completion goal uses academic year 2021-2022 as the baseline, when the share of entering students who complete their programs within 150% of expected time was 48.8%. This completion goal also informs performance funding. Visit ushe.edu/attainment-dashboards for data visualizations.

Financial Value

Maximize the return on investment and value proposition of a USHE education for all stakeholders.

Strategies & Tactics

  • Develop, implement, and report outcomes of new shared service functions, with a focus on legislatively prioritized areas of technology, human resources, Title IX, and commercialization and areas that are most likely to result in budget savings, cost avoidance, and/or improved services.
  • Study and develop best practices related to efficient utilization of existing spaces and ensure new capital development investments are aligned with System and institutional long-term plans and strategies.
  • Manage a rigorous tuition- and fee-setting process that creates efficiencies on the expenditure side to keep costs as low as possible for students.
  • Advance activities that increase FAFSA completion and student receipt of federal aid.
  • Invest in, deploy, and refine state aid and scholarship programs.
  • Increase student participation in high-quality work-based learning.
  • Through FY 28, provide data and resources that help institutions assess institutional efficiencies and student workforce outcomes, and approve and monitor the implementation of strategic reinvestment plans that achieve the intended outcomes of 53B-7-107.
  • In coordination with institutional presidents, establish and enforce more specific and forward-thinking roles for each institution that are informed by projections regarding demographic shifts, changes in workforce demand, and artificial intelligence and technology developments.
  • Align programs across institutions.
  • Compile a comprehensive report of unnecessarily duplicative programs, programs with low enrollment, and programs that no longer serve a market or systemwide need, and coordinate with institutional presidents to eliminate programs where appropriate.
  • Promote and incentivize program partnerships across institutions.

Economic Development

Leverage higher education to fortify the state’s economy, grow and develop industries, enhance Utahns’ quality of life, and position the state as an innovative leader in the global economy.

Strategies & Tactics

  • Incentivize high-yield awards by providing students the most relevant and meaningful information about labor market outcomes.
  • Ensure that performance funding is invested in interventions that advance progress toward institutional timely high-yield goals.
  • Develop legislative priorities, policies, and funding requests for workforce development initiatives.
  • Develop and promote workforce initiatives in collaboration with public education, industry, and state agencies.
  • Incentivize USHE institutions to expand research that involves collaboration across multiple colleges and universities in the System.
  • Support the Associate Commissioner of Innovation in the execution of The Point Innovation District’s strategic plan.

*This high-yield graduates goal uses academic year 2021-2022 as the baseline, when the share of graduates from programs leading to in-demand jobs was 71.2%. This high-yield graduates goal informs performance funding. This completion goal also informs performance funding. Visit ushe.edu/attainment-dashboards for data visualizations.

Download the 2024-27 Strategic Plan

my529 Strategic Plan (Coming Soon)

The Point Innovation District Strategic Plan

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