Rutgers–New Brunswick Academic Master Plan Final Report

April 27, 2022

Dear Rutgers–New Brunswick Community:

Today we are pleased to present the Academic Master Plan Final Report, a grounded and ambitious roadmap for Rutgers–New Brunswick’s future in providing a rigorous academic experience, in solving the complex grand challenges of our day, in public service and social justice, and in fostering student success.

Our publication of this report follows a nine-month process of intensive data collection and stakeholder engagement. The planning effort included three town halls; surveys of students, faculty, and staff with more than 4,000 responses; and nearly a dozen meetings with stakeholder groups that included undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and administrators at all levels. We are grateful to everyone who contributed their ideas and insights.

We encourage students, faculty, and staff to view the video from the April 26, 2022, virtual town hall in which the Academic Master Plan Final Report was shared with our community, and to read the Final Report on our Academic Master Plan website.

As you will see within the document itself, the Academic Master Plan comprises Four Pillars of Excellence: Scholarly Leadership, Innovative Research, Student Success, and Community Engagement. Each pillar includes a clear set of goals and objectives. For example, the Student Success pillar calls for the steadfast support of all students—including transfer students, returning professionals, and others—in their wellbeing, ability to navigate Rutgers, preparedness to work and learn in diverse and cross-disciplinary settings, and readiness to contribute to the greater public good.

The plan also includes a three-pronged structure for the discovery, development, and implementation of new and existing projects that will support the Academic Master Plan’s objectives. There will be local projects at the school and divisional level; transformational campus-wide initiatives that will be generated and supported through a Chancellor-Provost Challenge; and administrative-level initiatives that the Chancellor-Provost will advance in close collaboration with the President.

The Academic Master Plan focuses us on achieving the great promise of this community. It sets forth a strategy that prioritizes academic excellence; fulfills our three-part mission of teaching, research, and service as a land-grant university; and prepares citizens who are civic-minded, intellectually curious, creative, and successful. The planning process has instilled within us a profound awareness of and respect for the excellence at Rutgers–New Brunswick and the greater heights of which we are capable.

And we look forward to reaching those heights with you, the students, faculty, and staff who demonstrate, every day, what excellence looks like.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Holloway
President and University Professor

Francine Conway
Chancellor-Provost, Rutgers University–New Brunswick