Results (R)

5R2 Comparing Results

Strong leadership and effective communication enables Western to compete favorably with other institutions in several national programs.

Western was the first four-year public institution in Missouri to participate in the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP). Western’s leadership recognized the good fit between its strategic planning and AQIP and encouraged Western’s participation. Western’s Five-Year Strategic Plan is a comprehensive systems approach to continuous improvement. In its application to AQIP, Western demonstrated that it had integrated its systems planning across the nine AQIP Categories. Western’s Systems Portfolio is structured to demonstrate this integration.

Western has provided leadership support to AQIP and has representation on the Advisory Council, the Admissions Panel, the Peer Review Corps, and in the Systems Appraisal process.

Western was one of 12 founding public institutions selected from 70 public institutions in a national competition to participate in “Foundations of Excellence^® in the First Year of College” (O8, 1I2, 2C1, 2P4, 9R1).

Western, in 2004, was one of only 19 American colleges and universities selected to participate in a National Learning Communities Project Summer Institute (O8, 1P10, 9R1).

The institution has also joined approximately 200 other colleges and universities in the American Democracy Project (ADP), a national project focused on educating students as citizen scholars (9R1).

The successes of students prove that Western’s leadership initiatives positively impact Western’s most important commodity, students. For example, Western admits students to law school and medical school at a rate well above the national average. They pass licensure examinations in nursing (Figure 1.13 and 1.14) and other health professions at levels above the state and national averages and often exceed state expectations on the National Teacher’s Examination (Figure 1.21), placing Western in the top group of public colleges and universities in Missouri.

Comparative data and historical trends are shown in Category One.