WASHINGTON – When Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick unveiled the five-year strategic plan Howard Forward in early 2019, the first of five strategic pillars, Enhance Academic Excellence, was announced as the pillar to enhance student success through transformation and innovation in teaching and learning. Through this strategic priority, Howard leadership aims to support faculty, research and student development, academic rigor and retention through strategic recruitment and continuous improvement of academic programs. 

During the 2019-2020 academic school year, the University made notable progress in achieving the many goals outlined in specific initiatives within the Enhance Academic Excellence strategic pillar. Provost and Chief Academic Officer Anthony K. Wutoh, Ph.D., oversees a team of associate provosts and University leaders who are responsible for managing seven key initiatives for the Enhancing Academic Excellence pillar.

“Even as we navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, I am pleased with the progress that we have accomplished in the implementation of the initiatives to enhance academic excellence,” Wutoh says. “We will continue to accelerate the development of online courses and programs, supporting faculty through our professional development initiatives, and strengthening our academic portfolio with innovative programs. The key goal of all of these efforts is to further student success and opportunity. I look forward to even greater progress in the coming year.”

Focused Academic Portfolio

To realign the University’s academic offerings with national and global priorities to ensure at least 70% of programs are in areas of demand, Howard Forward leadership created the Focused Academic Portfolio initiative. In service of this initiative, the Provost’s Program Prioritization Task Force assessed the University’s entire academic portfolio and suite of administrative support programs, and committees were formed to overhaul the new academic review process and modernize the general education curriculum. These efforts were envisioned to provide Howard students with the skills and mindsets needed to be competitive in the workforce of the future. The task force recently completed its assessment, enabling the provost to pinpoint strategic investment areas; a new academic program review process was developed; and the work to transform general education into a world class, cutting-edge program of university studies has begun. 

eLearning & Online Instruction

This initiative was created to promote the development and integration of strategic and effective distance learning options, resulting in 20% of course offerings being offered online. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University moved to 100% remote instruction, which required a robust transition to online learning through mandatory faculty training for the Blackboard learning platform, in coordination with the Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Assessment (CETLA). To date, more than 1,000 Zoom licenses have been acquired—over 85% of which have been distributed to University faculty and staff, through the Technology for the 21st Centuryinitiative. Additionally, two online degree programs within the School of Business, the MBA Online and the Executive MBA Online, were announced earlier this year, in partnership with Noodle Partners.

Academic Innovation

In support of opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and co-creation, the Howard Forward team created the Academic Innovation initiative. The goal is to produce more joint academic programs and research collaborations, with an emphasis on programs that bring members of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) communities together to address local, national and global health challenges. The initiative will ultimately become the Academic Innovation Office, headed by former Dean of the College of BusinessBarron Harvey, Ph.D., who was appointed by Provost Wutoh.

Professional Development

A key component of Enhancing Academic Excellence is the Professional Development initiative, which promotes professional advancement and specialized skills training of Howard University faculty. The Office of Faculty Development was recently awarded its second consecutive four-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of its many programs and initiatives for faculty members. Examples include the Junior Faculty Writing & Creative Works Summer Academy, with nearly 80 junior faculty completing the program over the past four years, and the Chair Leadership Academy, with approximately 90 new department chairs, associate deans and interim appointments, also within the past four years. 

Student Success

During the past year, a University-wide career council was formed to coordinate career services programs, review recruitment and employer engagement policies, and adopt innovative career service programming and strategies. There was an increased utilization of Bison Adviser, a predictive analytics and advising platform for academic leadership, by more than 75%. A centralized strategy was created to collect data necessary to populate the Office of Undergraduate Studies Student Success Scorecard, which includes key performance indicators like achieving and maintaining a first-year retention rate of 95% and above and decreasing the drop-out rate due to financial hardship to zero. 

Course Scheduling & Faculty Workload Optimization

The Howard Forward team is recalibrating faculty workload distributions through the Course Scheduling & Faculty Workload Optimizationinitiative, particularly in the schools and colleges with a combination of undergraduate and graduate programs. To determine the proper number of faculty members needed in each area to fulfill research, teaching and service obligations, the team gathered data from course catalogues for the past five years and began developing a framework for departments to review curriculum every three to five years. 

For more information on Howard Forward, including recent news and an overview of the five strategic pillars, visit https://www2.howard.edu/howard-forward.  

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About Howard University

Founded in 1867, Howard University is a private, research university that is comprised of 13 schools and colleges. Students pursue studies in more than 120 areas leading to undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. The University operates with a commitment to Excellence in Truth and Service and has produced one Schwarzman Scholar, three Marshall Scholars, four Rhodes Scholars, 11 Truman Scholars, 25 Pickering Fellows and more than 165 Fulbright recipients. Howard also produces more on-campus African-American Ph.D. recipients than any other university in the United States. For more information on Howard University, visit www.howard.edu.