A new framework for success
At UAB, we shape the future through innovative ideas and bold initiatives in the classroom, the laboratory, the studio and the clinic. As always, the coming decade will present new opportunities and dynamic challenges, and we must prepare to meet them.
Forging Ahead, UAB's five-year strategic plan for 2024-2028, will build on the success of our 2018-2023 Forging the Future strategic plan and refine our mission, vision and values — and outline institutional goals and strategies for achieving them.
The metrics that measure our collective progress toward meeting each goal will be published on this site, and schools and administrative units may adapt them to their own, complementary goals.
President Ray Watts and the Strategic Planning Council will present a draft of the new, updated plan during an October 25 town hall. The draft plan will be published on this site where additional feedback can be submitted for consideration before an updated draft is presented to the UA System Board of Trustees in 2024. Notice of the town hall location, date and time will be communicated through email, The eReporter, Greenmail and on the campus calendar.
Good planning leads to growth
UAB has undertaken a series of strategic plans to achieve its remarkable growth in just 50 years — each serving as a blueprint for what was to come.
For example, the UAB21 plan, refined in 2010, led to notable achievements, such as the Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance, which is accelerating the efforts to treat Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, diabetes and kidney disease and more. Subsequent strategic plans expanded the Honors College and created the Blazing Start initiative to give more Birmingham-area high school graduates greater access to UAB educational opportunities.
More recently, Forging the Future produced a new core curriculum, launched a Grand Challenge, led to record-breaking enrollment and research expenditures and unparalleled giving by donors and alumni. Ten years of strategic growth are chronicled in this spring 2023 edition of UAB Magazine.
The new strategic plan, Forging Ahead, refines UAB's mission, vision, values and goals — and outlines institutionwide strategies for achieving them. It also provides a framework to guide units in shaping plans that help achieve institutional priorities.
The elements of the new plan — mission, vision, values, pillars and foundations — will be presented publicly and published here on October 25, 2023.