Introduction

We are ambitious and restless — an institution that is of the world. Look around, and you’ll find our students, faculty, and professional staff in places as diverse as Morocco and Iceland as well as in clinics and field sites across our nation’s cities, villages, forests, and oceans. You’ll see us learning from experiences in communities representing every form of human difference. These cultural, personal, and geographic connections reflect the profound respect and concern that the UNE community holds for the health of our world — its people, its communities, and its physical environment. We couple this concern with our nimbleness, flexibility, creativity, and sense of urgency to make UNE a powerful source of innovation for a healthier planet. 

We have a strong legacy and a prestigious set of programs in the health sciences. But we are a comprehensive university, and creating a healthier planet requires more than talented health professionals. It requires leaders from all disciplines, including the natural and social sciences, humanities and arts, business, policy, and more — bringing their diverse and complementary skills to bear on the most pressing challenges of our world.

We are seizing on our foundational strengths to:

• Expand active and collaborative teaching and learning through pedagogical innovation and enhanced technologies;
• Enhance our commitment to experiential learning;
• Create even more opportunities for students, faculty, and professional staff to work together across academic disciplines and professional programs; and
• Adapt and scale up the solutions we find working on problems in local communities to address similar challenges around the globe.

These steps chart a bold new course for UNE:

We will be one of the nation’s top providers of education, expertise, and innovation for sustaining the health of our world’s natural environment, people, and communities.

This broad perspective on health requires us to focus on interactions among individuals, communities, and the environment. Moreover, it demands that we look for solutions to our world’s pressing challenges by drawing knowledge and expertise from many academic disciplines. This means exposing students to discipline-based knowledge, cross-disciplinary habits of mind, and professional competencies that are discussed in this strategic plan. With these skills, UNE students will be ready to bring the fullest breadth of understanding and expertise to bear on improving the condition of people, society, and our planet.

Inspired by this vision and guided by this plan, UNE will empower students to anticipate and meet the challenges of this new world and to become active leaders in creating its future.

UNE — for the health of our world.