Thrive: Strategic Direction

• Conduct curriculum mapping to optimize major and course offerings, and identify, streamline, and remove impediments.
• Revise credit transfer and academic policies.
• Finalize the new program development and approval process.
• Ensure that the course development process includes social and cultural context.

• Establish a teaching center, staffed by professionals, to promote and enhance the pedagogical development of faculty and staff, and generate new approaches to effective teaching.
• Devise and implement concrete incentives for rewarding exemplary teaching.
• Foster a culture of inclusive excellence by applying evidence-based, student-centered, and culturally responsive teaching principles in all learning environments.
• Purposefully link educational and emerging technologies to classroom practice.

• Actively explore a presence in areas that align with our global strategy and international recruitment goals.
• Launch a partnership with Inspired Schools.
• Explore a non-degree-granting presence in China and the Middle East.
• Reposition Global Initiatives as a scalable platform for delivering educational content across our global network.

• Expand online and hybrid offerings that align with market demand.

• Refine admissions and awarding strategies to increase selectivity, diversity, retention, and graduation rates.
• Leverage new entering-student aid to optimize a merit-driven approach while reducing need-based gaps for high-quality students.
• Expand the Thrive continuing student aid pilot to reduce need-based gaps for academically achieving students.

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• Enhance the impact of academic, financial, wellness, and career advising through more proactive, personalized, and integrated approaches.
• Implement the objectives set forth in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Framework.
• Align the cocurricular experience to student development outcomes.
• Launch a coordinated student communication approach that guides students through their Berklee experience.
• Build from existing and create new student success initiatives like college core music supports, the Berklee Summer Initiative, academic coaching and tutoring, and living learning communities.
• Improve the effectiveness of and satisfaction with frontline, student-facing experiences.
• Identify creative ways to enhance the student experience in existing and new spaces.

• Enhance career education and experiential opportunities in all majors.
• Expand participation in and funding for career experiences, including internships.
• Broaden employer engagement across all career communities and academic programs.
• Partner with faculty to expand the reach and impact of career advising to more students.
• Influence and advocate for innovation in the arts and the industry with the Open Music Initiative, Women in Music, and paid internships.

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• Deepen our sense of community by defining shared values and creating an institution-wide mission statement.

• Implement a technological ecosystem to inform best-practice academic and financial advising, and enable a successful degree audit.
• Strengthen relationship management software to facilitate better communication with prospective and current students as well as alumni.
• Align resources to support new systems workflows and improved internal efficiencies.
• Implement final phases of the One Berklee enrollment project to optimize systems and unify enrollment data and reporting across all programs.

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• Develop the case to inspire philanthropic support.
• Evaluate current programming and expenses, and invest cost savings to the Thrive Fund.

• Redeploy resources to support Thrive and our other highest strategic priorities.
• Align our performance management system, budget, and cost allocation processes.
• Engage in a formal talent management process; support the development of Berklee’s faculty, staff, and chairs; and ensure that staffing is aligned to support Thrive.
• Optimize facilities, including flexible spaces, to align with evolving student and curricular needs.

• Begin to develop the capacity for predictive modeling and analytics.
• Implement a comprehensive plan for benchmarking, assessment, and evaluation.