We will prepare students for success in their personal and professional lives by bringing together career-focused knowledge and skills with preparation in liberal education to build the habits of mind and interpersonal skills that will be demanded of our graduates in their careers and communities. In particular, we will increase our emphasis on active learning in the classroom and its integration with innovative experiential learning—internships, field work, faculty-directed research and scholarship, civic engagement, and many other activities—as well as integration of curricular and co-curricular activities and programs. And by asking students to reflect critically on these experiences, during and afterward, we will help them reinforce the connection between classroom and hands-on learning, enhancing both.
Toward these ends, we will:
- Focus teaching and learning around the development and integration of habits of mind, discipline-based knowledge, and professional competencies.
- Create new high-quality experiential learning opportunities and deepen their integration with academic curricula, with the goal that all UNE students engage in at least one top-tier experiential learning opportunity during their academic program.
- Create distinctive interdisciplinary and interprofessional programs as well as collaborative practices across our colleges and departments.
- Develop multiple teaching and learning formats that respond to evolving research on effective pedagogy and that increase student access, support improved retention, and foster degree completion
