Strategic Planning in Colleges and

Universities
Dr. Michael Fathi, Georgia Southwestern State University
Dr. Liz Wilson, Georgia Southwestern State University

Abstract

Like any business, colleges and universities must also use

strategic planning in order to grow and prosper. Strategic
Planning is vital to the success of colleges and universities as
it allows the institution to analyze the present and forecast
the future in order to create and sustain competitive advan-
tages. By planning ahead, colleges and universities can pre-
pare for changing trends, new technology and changing de-
mands. It is very important that colleges develop a proper
planning method which includes effective analysis, prioritiz-
ing goals, setting objectives and implementation. Over the
years colleges and universities have tried and tested various
techniques for developing a comprehensive strategic plan.
Colleges have learned from the techniques used by many
business organizations to create the most effective plans.
The plans chosen by colleges/universities often include the
combination of the long-range planning model and the
environmental scanning model to create an effective
strategic planning process. The strategies need to change and
a good plan must be visited on at least an annual basis.
Suggestions of how colleges and universities can keep
strategic plans in place in a time of stormy and tight
economy.

Strategic Planning: Planning for Change

Demographics and economics

Many changes in the external environment have

created a necessity for institutions of higher education
to prepare their own plan for assessing and adapting to
change. For instance, in looking at recent trends in
higher education, income disparities are the most cited
barrier to access and graduation from an institute of

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 91

higher learning (Inside Higher Ed, 2007). David
Sawicki’s research indicated that many universities are
engaged in strategic planning “A natural part of that
process for a college that contains architecture and
planning is the reconsideration of the administrative
structure and the respective roles of each within the
university. As part of such an exercise, they reevalu-
ated the rationale for locating planning and architec-
ture in the same unit” (Sawicki, 1992). With greater
economic woes being forecast for the foreseeable fu-
ture, what can colleges do to attract and retain a grow-
ing population of low-income students?

At first blush, it seems as though there is no best

answer to the above-referenced problem. With tighter
and tighter budget restrictions, coupled with decreas-
ing federal and state funding for higher education, it
seems as though it is an ever-increasing downward spi-
ral that further perpetuates the already dire economic
downturn. “Strategic planning is really going to need
to change”, Austin Peay State University, A tight econ-
omy, he adds, “forces an institution to focus on what is
most important” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008).
Colleges will need to shorten their time horizons, with
strategic plans lasting no more than three to five years.
In coping with uncertain finances and budget cuts, the
colleges/universities must revisit their plans often, ex-
perts say, and make difficult choices quickly, to stick
to their priorities (Chronicle of Higher Education,
2008).

Unemployment rates across the nation are at an

all-time high, nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply
in January 2009 (-598,000) and the unemployment rate
rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent (Bureau of labor statistics,
2009). Virtually every American institution is facing
major crises these days, from declining businesses to
evaporating financial portfolios. To get out of these
crises, authentic leaders must step forward and lead
their organizations through them. The current crisis

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 92

was not caused by subprime mortgages, credit default
swaps, or failed economic policies. The root cause is
failed leadership. New laws, regulations, and economic
bailouts won't heal wounds created by leadership
failures. They can only be solved by new leaders with
the wisdom and skill to put their organizations on the
right long-term course (Wall Street Journal, 2009).
The credit crunch and bank meltdown that roiling
markets will test any strategic plan. And
colleges/universities will soon learn whether they have
done their homework (Wall Street Journal, 2008). The
following steps are necessary for educational
institutions in coping with uncertain finances and
budget cuts; 1)developing contingencies, the strategic
plans should require colleges and universities to keep a
rainy-day fund. 2) Revisit/revise strategic plans from 5
years to six months, most of colleges and universities
are slow to react to economic developments. 3) Make
tough choices, by eliminating low performing programs
and combining departments/schools in order to meet
the budget cuts.

The Environment, Learning & Politics

Environmental and political concerns and issues
have dramatically changed the day-to-day operations of
higher education. Leading the way in the “green revo-
lution,” are many colleges and universities who are
focusing on sustainability, as well as a reduction in
green house gases (Inside Higher Ed, 2007). This shift
in focus and awareness on green energy and sustain-
ability offer many opportunities for institutes of higher
learning, in particular, business schools who are pre-
paring the future leaders of green industry (The Star,
2007). Across the globe, students are seeking ‘green’
studies and careers. But perhaps the most easily rec-
ognizable change in student demographics is the in-
creasing number of Latino and Asian students on
American campuses. It is predicted that within the
next decade, most universities will no longer have a
single racial “majority” group. The student body is

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 93

also getting older as more and more non-traditional
students are flocking to campuses nationwide to earn
bachelor’s degrees.

The world’s political climate is also changing, as

China becomes a global powerhouse, both economically
as well as educationally. The British higher education
think tank, Agora, predicts that China will likely be-
come the world’s leader in tertiary education (SCUP
Trends in Higher Education, 2008). All trends tend to
point to this revelation, as China is now the largest
higher education system in the world, awarding more
university level degrees than the United States and In-
dia combined (SCUP Trends in Higher Education).

Another emerging trend is global education, which

could have a significant impact on our domestic higher
education institutions coupled with the new focus on
transfer credits and recognition of degrees across coun-
tries (Inside Higher Ed, 2007). Institutes of higher edu-
cation, were once only concerned with regional com-
petitors, now find themselves competing against insti-
tutions at the national and international levels.

Technology

Perhaps the largest determinant of change across

higher education is the advent of new and emergent
technologies. We are living during one of the greatest
times in history, as never before have we had the
power to gain knowledge right at our fingertips. The
Internet, and all other forms of electronically mediated
learning, continue to thrive across all levels of higher
education, and are increasing on a daily basis. Accord-
ing to the Babson Survey Research Group, online educa-
tion is expanding at nearly three times the rate of
overall of higher education enrollments (Allen & Sea-
man, 2007). However, despite the increased use of
technology in higher education, interest in computer
science as a career is declining (The Globe and Mail,

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 94

2008). American Society for Quality (ASQ) reveals that
educator anticipates Obama’s administration to focus
on technology, innovation, and life and career skills for
students to succeed (ASQ , Feb 2009).

New Trends

There must be a focus on creating new models of

higher education while maintaining certain elements of
a “traditional” model, as the gap between what mod-
ern-day society wants and what traditional institutions
provides continues to widen (Rowley & Lujan, 1997).
For instance, some educational institutions are lacking
online presence, which means that it is not doing a
good job of meeting the current needs of society. So-
ciety today expects higher education to be accessible
to all; “learning without walls” so to speak. While it is
unrealistic to suppose that any traditional school will
completely move to a consumer-driven model of higher
education rather than a provider-driven model, it is
realistic for the more traditional “brick and mortar”
schools to expand their online presence in the new
world of virtual learning. Universities that cannot
meet the demands of today’s society and technologi-
cally driven constituents will quickly find themselves
left behind and suffering from decreased enrollment,
and consequently, decreased federal and state funding.

Another trend is to search for meaningful relation-

ships abroad. Colleges/universities should focus on a
select group of foreign universities in hopes of engaging
large numbers students and faculty members, encour-
aging robust research collaborations, and cultivating a
more global campus. A growing number of col-
lege/university leaders say they want arrangements
that involve multiple departments and disciplines,
square with institutional goals, and even tackle global
challenges like sustainable agriculture or clean energy
(Chronicle of Higher Education, 2009).

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 95

The Need for Strategic Planning in Higher Education

According to Benjamin & Carroll, strategy is a tool

for institutions of higher education to find competitive
advantage and place in the environment (1998). “Insti-
tutions of higher education that do not rethink their
roles, responsibilities, and structures…can expect a
very difficult time in the next decade and the next
generation. Some will not survive. Most will be ex-
pected to do much more with far less” (Chronicle of
Higher Education, 2008). As a consequence of the in-
creasing environmental pressures, strategic planning
process will become a focal point for the successful
management of colleges and universities. Combined
with the impact of technology, globalization, and the
increasing presence of nontraditional-age learners to
the collegiate environment, institutions have sought
new and different ways to plan for the realities of un-
certainty.

As the paradigm of higher education continues to

shift, it is blatantly clear that the institutions that re-
sist change are predestined to decline, and possibly
fail. Effective leaders are those leaders who realize
that reasonable risks must be taken in order to attend
to the demands of a changing and competitive envi-
ronment that is sweeping higher education.

The Benefits of Strategic Planning

There are many benefits of strategic planning for

institutes of higher learning. By using the concept of
strategic planning, which is a concept that is rooted
deep in military history and theory, and has been
adapted as a tool for businesses to determine “where
we are going, and how we are going to get there,” uni-
versities will be able to:
• Devise a realistic framework for determining the
process a university should take in achieving its
stated and desired future.

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 96

• Provide a framework for obtaining and creating
competitive advantage.
• Create better alignment for the university with its
environment.
• Establish goals and priorities.
• “Raise the vision of all key participants, encourag-
ing them to reflect creatively on the strategic di-
rection” of the university or institution (Hax & Maj-
luf, 1996).

The key element of strategic planning is to achieve

competitive advantage. The newer models of strategic
planning also focus on adaptability, or what is referred
to as “strategic agility,” or the focus on an organiza-
tion’s ability to succeed based on “its ability to trans-
form itself, continuously, than whether it has the right
strategy.

However, despite the many advantages of strategic

planning for institutes of higher education, historically,
strategic planning in universities has been only moder-
ately successful (Rowley & Lujan, 1997). There is cur-
rently no clarity on the major determinants of success
for strategic planning in universities.

Steps in the Strategic Planning Process

Vision & Mission

The initial step in any strategic planning process is

to define or identify the university’s vision and mission.
These two components of the strategic planning model,
Figure1, should be clearly defined, as none of the sub-
sequent steps in the planning process will matter if an
organization is not sure where it is headed. When de-
veloping a mission, a college or university must know
what type of students it is prepared to educate and
how it plans to prepare the students for the workplace.
Over time, colleges and universities must revise their
mission statement in order to adapt to the changing

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 97

environments. Many colleges and universities began as
a female/male dominated educational institution. As
times changed, the institutions began to accept differ-
ent genders, different social classes and offer more
choices of academic disciplines. Also, institutions of
higher education have evolved into multicultural or-
ganizations of learning techniques and resources as
well. This gradual change is a result of colleges and
universities changing as the surrounding environment
changed.

Figure 1: Strategic Management Process for colleges and universities

SWOT & Five Forces

Once the institution’s vision and mission have been

clearly defined and agreed upon by all the constitu-
ents, the next step in the process is analyzing both the
internal and external environment of the institution.
Two of the most common and effective tools used for
this are the SWOT analysis and the Five Forces Model.
Both of these tools analyze information about the insti-
tution’s external environment such as the social, eco-
nomic, demographic, technological, and political fac-
tors, as well as any internal institutional factors
(Thompson, Strickland & Gamble, 2008). Colleges and

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 98

universities must consider students as customers of
educational institution. Most students and parents of-
ten shop around and research educational institutions
that meet their needs. Colleges and universities must
identify these needs and offer programs to meet the
needs of their potential customers. Ultimately, stu-
dents will select and choose an institution that provides
them with the options they desire.

Identifying new opportunities gives col-

leges/universities a basis for growth. Opportunities can
allow the institution to gain competitive advantage,
compete with competitors and increase student en-
rollment as well as create revenue. Discovering oppor-
tunities and including them in the strategic plan will
enable the college/university to grow and prosper by
bringing more people to the campus, and making the
campus and community a better place to be.

Identifying threats in the planning process is a

must and the institution must find ways to prevent or
react to emerging threats. Threats can include many
issues such as economic instability, high unemploy-
ment, and budget cuts. College and universities try to
include all possibilities in order to take a proactive ap-
proach to managing the threats that may occur.

Gap Analysis

Strengths of a college or university are the charac-

teristics that they believe make them superior or have
positive impact on the success of an institution. These
strengths are usually the reasons students choose one
college/university over another. Special/unique pro-
grams, legacy and school size, are also reasons that
schools are chosen over competitors. Based on the in-
formation derived from the SWOT and/or Five Forces
analyses, an organization then determines what is re-
ferred to as a gap analysis, which is simply the differ-

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 99

ence between the institution’s current position and the
desired future (Thompson & Strickland, 2008).

Benchmarking

Another common method of analyzing the current

position of an institution in comparison to its competi-
tors is through the use of benchmarking. Benchmarking
is very useful for identifying “best practices,” and for
measuring and comparing its own operations, perform-
ance, and practices against those of its rivals (Dess &
Lumpkin, 2008).

Strategic Issues & Strategic Programming

Once the institution has completed all of the per-

tinent analyses such as the SWOT, Five Forces, and
benchmarking, it then delineates its strategic issues;
the basic and fundamental issues that have to be ad-
dressed in order to achieve its vision and mission and
move forward toward its desired future (Thompson &
Strickland, 2008).

In order to address the strategic issues which have

been identified, the institution will undertake strategic
programming which involves setting strategic goals,
action plans, and tactics. The strategic goals should
follow the acronym SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Agreed upon, Realistic, and Time/cost bound) (Thomp-
son & Strickland, 2008). The strategic goals define the
milestones that an institution plans to achieve; the ac-
tion plan sets forth how the institution will go about
achieving its strategic goals; and the tactics define the
specific actions used to implement and achieve the
strategic goals (Thompson & Strickland, 2008).

Institutions should periodically review their strate-

gic plan in order to determine any changes that need to
be made, such as course adjustments or corrections

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 100
that warranted in response to any changes in its inter-
nal and/or external environment.

Unique Components of Strategic Planning in Higher

Education

While it is important to note that higher education

can utilize many of the same tools as businesses in the
strategic planning process, there are significant differ-
ences that are pertinent only to higher education and
differ from those components seen in the business
world. For instance, the strategic planning model in
the business world has a time frame of roughly 2 to 3
years, while the time frame for higher education will
typically require planning for 5 years or longer (Rowley
& Lujan, 1997), another obvious difference is seen in
the value systems of both models. The business model
takes the bottom line approach, while the university’s
model is viewed as a more long-term investment in
educating people (Rowley & Lujan, 1997). One of the
reasons for this difference in values is the difficulty
encountered by universities in defining their customer.
Universities do not have a clearly defined customer,
but rather consider members of various groups such as
students, employers, and the communities in which
they operate, to all be their “customers” (Rowley et.
al). On the other hand, most businesses are clearly
able to define exactly who their customers or target
market are.

The primary reason for the differences between

the business model and the university model is the de-
centralized or “loosely coupled” management. Unlike
a business, in which there is a definite hierarchy of
centralized power, universities lack the command au-
thority that enables the university’s administration to
“direct” or “command” the faculty. By focusing on the
recruitment and involvement of faculty during the stra-
tegic planning process, universities will help strengthen
the commitment to achieving the institution’s vision

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 101
and mission through a concerted effort by all the insti-
tution’s constituents to achieving its strategic action
plan.

Finally, strategic planning is an imperative task

that must be done on an ongoing basis. The purpose of
such detailed planning efforts is to enable the col-
lege/university to create competitive advantages.
These key competencies allow the college or university
to differentiate themselves from other educational in-
stitutions. By offering programs of better quality,
unique facilities, flexible programs, and interactive
campus life, educational institutions are bound to cre-
ate these new competitive advantages that will cause
students to choose that university over others. Ongoing
strategic planning allows the university to continue to
improve strengths, reduces weaknesses, take advan-
tage of opportunities and take a proactive approach to
threats.

References

Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2007). Online Nation: Five Years of Growth
in Online Learning. Babson Research Group.
American Society for Quality (ASQ 2009), Vol. 42, issue2, p15.
BBC News. (2007). China's Bid for World Domination. Message posted
to http://www.newsvote.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-
/2/hi/uk_news/education/7098561.stm
Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009). http://www.bls/gov/cps/
Church, E., & Hartley, M. (2008). Industry Feels Pinch as Numbers of
IT Grads Plummet. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from
http://www.theglobeandmail.com
Dess, Lumpkin & Eisner. (2008). Strategic Management, McGraw Hill
Publishing Company. P 368.
Gas Price Outlook. (2008). New York Times, p. B2.
Gillian, Leader (2004).“Further Education Middle managers”, Educa-
tional management Administration & Leadership. Jan 2004, vol.
32, issue 1, p 67-79.
Hax, A. C., & Majluf, N. S. (1996). The Strategy Concept and Process,
A Pragmatic Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Learning to Make Money from Going Green. (2007). The Star, 286157.
Retrieved March 21, 2008, from
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/286157

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 102
Master's Degrees Abound as Universities and Students See a Windfall.
(2007). New York Times.
Principles for International Collaboration in Graduate Education.
(2007). Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from
http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/print/news/2007/09/10
/banff
Progress Seen in College Sustainability. (2007). Inside Higher Ed.
Retrieved March 21, 2008, from
http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/news/2007/1
0/24/sustainability
Rowley, D. J., Lujan, H. D., & Dolence, M. G. (1997). Strategic
Change in Colleges and Universities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Publishers.
Sawicki, David. (1992). Journal of Planning Education Research,
Voll12, No. 1-1-16
SCUP Trends in Higher Education. (2008). SCUP Trends in Higher Edu-
cation, 1(1), 1-14.
Thompson, A., Jr., Strickland, A. J., III, & Gamble, J. (2008). Craft-
ing and Executing Strategy (16th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Ir-
win.
Wall Street Journal. (2009). January 24.

Professor Michael Fathi joined GSW in 1999 after serving 13

years as an associate professor at Brewton Parker College. He
has been teaching in different educational institutions for
past 25 years. He has been selected as the “TEACHER OF THE
YEAR” in 1993 by student body at Brewton Parker College.
Also, in 2005 he has received “ECELLENCE & COMMITMENT TO
TEACHING AWARD” by students at Georgia Southwestern
State University. He received a Fulbright Scholarship in 1998
and served six month in former Soviet Union to do research
and teach “Free-Market Economy” to educators at university
of Tashkent and to the government official in Uzbekistan and
Kazakhstan. Professor Fathi has published over 25 articles on
a variety of management topics.

Dr. Liz Wilson has been at Georgia Southwestern State Uni-

versity since 1990. A professor of management and human
resource management, she serves as the director of under-
graduate programs at GSW. She holds certification as a pro-
fessional Professional in Human Resources from the Society of
Human Resource Management. Dr. Wilson is a three-time re-
cipient of GSW’s “Teacher of the Year.” She has published
numerous articles in the areas of management and human
resource management.

The Business Renaissance Quarterly: Enhancing the Quality of Life at Work 103