Indiana University lays out strategic roadmap in ‘IU 2030’ plan

Indiana University on Tuesday unveiled a seven-year plan for its seven campuses, a strategic roadmap that seeks to reaffirm the university’s status among globally recognized higher education institutions.

The three-pronged plan, called IU 2030, will focus on improving post-secondary attainment and retention rates, increasing the university’s vast research enterprise and aligning its objectives with the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the state’s job-creation agency.

In addition to laying out a vision for IU’s flagship location in Bloomington, the blueprint includes campus-specific plans for the university’s six campuses outside Bloomington, including IUPUI, which is set to be renamed IU Indianapolis under a realignment plan.

The IU Board of Trustees endorsed the plan at its April 7 meeting.

“We are charting an ambitious seven-year vision for IU, with a roadmap to new heights that reaffirms the university’s rightful place within the highest tier of American public higher education,” IU President Pamela Whitten said in written remarks.

The plan, which relied on input from hundreds of faculty, staff and students, looks to address a need for skilled workers in a state that hopes to attract high-wage jobs in advanced manufacturing, life sciences and technology sectors. IU’s goal is to increase career-pathway partnerships with high schools in each campus region and boost the number of graduates hired to Indiana-based industry sectors supported by the IEDC, officials said.

In December, IU revealed plans to create a science and technology corridor within its downtown Indy campus, part of an effort to boost science, technology, engineering and math degrees.

Moving forward, Hoosiers can expect to see new degrees in nanotechnology and microelectronics, as well as focused programs through its upcoming School of Science aimed at addressing a statewide physician shortage, Whitten said.

The university also said it hopes to vault the IU School of Medicine into one of the 10 best funded research institutions in the country. The school currently ranks 14th nationally in total National Institutes of Health-funded research among public universities.

The plan’s rollout comes as Indiana grapples with a declining postsecondary attainment rate, which fell from 65% in 2015 to 53% in 2020, the lowest rate in a generation, according to the Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education.