PLANNING AND ANALYSIS DEPARTMENT

Mission Statement

The Planning & Analysis Department conducts strategic planning, analysis, and assessment for the University of California and advances and promotes policy development and implementation, with particular attention to the following areas:

· Long-range enrollment planning;

· Improvement of undergraduate and graduate education, including student engagement and performance;

· Academic and institutional quality and accountability; and

· Analysis of budgetary issues from an academic perspective.

The department consults with various systemwide administrative and Academic Senate committees as well as with UCOP and campus staff, and with their help, identifies major challenges on the horizon that are likely to affect the University's academic life in the next five to ten years; analyzes their potential impacts; performs analyses that support the planning activities of the senior academic leadership of the University; develops alternative policy options to support these planning activities; and assists systemwide and campus administrators with policy implementation. Given its future orientation, the department's agenda changes to reflect emerging issues, such as implementation of state-supported summer instruction and UC's changing role in a global environment.

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The ways in which Planning & Analysis staff accomplish their mission can be characterized by four dimensions:

Interactions - Work is accomplished through collaborative relationships and consultation within Planning & Analysis, with professional staff throughout the Office of the President, and with campus colleagues. At times, staff collaborate with counterparts at other higher education institutions and at state or national agencies and organizations. Planning & Analysis staff also support several systemwide academic and administrative groups.

Content - The substantive agenda for Planning & Analysis is not static, and aside from annual reports, cannot always be predicted. There are some overarching areas of interest and expertise, however, that the unit addresses.

· Long-range enrollment planning, with the goals of analyzing underlying student demand, workforce needs, and other pressures that influence projected enrollments, identifying academic and budgetary issues related to the University’s ability to accommodate students over the long-term, and building support to help ensure that the University achieves the desired future.

· Improving undergraduate and graduate education, with the goal of identifying policy, best practice, budgetary, or other interventions that can strengthen the campuses’ abilities to provide positive, meaningful learning experiences for both undergraduate and graduate students.

· Analyzing academic and institutional quality and accountability issues, with the goal of providing internal and external constituencies with information to make informed judgments about the University’s academic performance.

· Analyzing budgetary issues from an academic perspective, with the goal of maintaining focus on long-term agendas in the context of annual budgets.

Products - Professional staff produce reports, analyses and policy options for The Regents, campus administrators, and academic governance committees as well as for governmental bodies and the broader public. Some of the department’s products are cyclical and recurring, responding to standing requests or updating data that are tracked annually. Other products are ad hoc in nature, initiated in response to emerging policy issues or to the department’s particular areas of interest and expertise. Another important product is the department’s advancement of University academic policies and their implementation, by helping to structure Universitywide discussion among action and advisory groups.

Analytic Tools - In their work, Planning and Analysis staff use statistical analysis, database management, survey and modeling techniques, spreadsheets and graphic presentation tools. They also contribute to the design and development of new methodologies, models, surveys, benchmark measures, databases, and other analytic tools used by the broader university or higher education community.