EXPERIENCE OF STRATEGIC PLANNING AT THE FACULTY

When university is planning a breakthrough in research and studies it is very important to decide where it is going over the forthcoming years and how to get there. An ambitious strategic plan is a major instrument to achieve sought results. In our poster presentation we will overview the main objectives of strategic plan of Vilnius University in general and how the Faculty of Economics developed and is being implementing own plan on faculty level. The presentation will give a summary of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the faculty to place it correctly in the competitive market, will identify the main directions of reforms and the critical measures being implemented.

The strategic planning at the university is aimed at improving governance, research and study quality. Here is a lot of literature on strategic planning in business or public institutions but less is written about strategic plans at higher education instutions (Strategic planning in higher education, HEFCE Guide, 2000; D. Rowley. Strategic Change in Colleges and Universities, 1997; Barker T. (1997) Strategic planning: Evolution of a model. Innovative Higher Education 21(4); Dooris M. (2002-2003). Two Decades of Strategic Planning. Planning for HigherEducation. 31(2). A Practical Guide to Strategic Planning in Higher Education by Karen E. Hinton (2012). Only recently strategic planning at faculty level received a deserved attention.

Strategic planning usually starts with setting of mission and vision and proceeds with adoption of action plans, selection of people responsible for implementation, setting the time limits and often completes with the listing of monitoring indicators. As we learned from our experience the implementation of strategic plan is a long lasting and rather painful process and should be handled with great care to achieve satisfactory results.

Vilnius University acknowledging the merits of strategic planning periodically develops strategic plans. The last one adopted in 2016 is a short-term plan covering period 2016-2018. The plan is very ambitious and targets almost all areas of university activities – research, studies, management, finances etc. All university units are obliged to develop own short-term strategic plans. One unit with a rich experience in strategic planning is the Faculty of Economics which the first strategic plan developed in 2003. The faculty strategic plan includes SWOT analysis and the following five pillars: innovative research, international competitive studies, active partnership, harmonious community, effective management. The paper will describe in details the tasks and objectives of each pillar, will explain all major measures and expected results.

We expect that strategic plan will be useful to properly positioning the faculty in the market, identifying its strengths and weaknesses in comparison to main competitors, discovering opportunities and threats in the development of research and studies. We also anticipate that strategic plan and its development process will facilitate the mobilisation of every bit of knowledge and expertise at the faculty in raising shortages and missed opportunities and will help to join efforts in raising the role and image of the faculty in labour market and society.