Clark University has announced a bold strategic plan for adapting to higher education’s changing competitive landscape and building institutional strength for the long term.
The Clark Board of Trustees recently approved the strategic plan and an FY2026 budget that responds to the unprecedented pressures on institutions from national demographic changes impacting enrollment, increasing costs, policy changes, and uncertainty across higher education.
Clark’s approach responds to these pressures while creating transformative opportunities for students and deepening the University’s impact in addressing some of the world’s greatest challenges.
“All of higher education, Clark included, is at a critical inflection point,” said Clark University President David Fithian. “Rather than simply meet this challenging moment as an exercise in budget constraint, we have taken a longer view, leaning into current strengths and what is best about Clark to offer our students an even more compelling experience going forward.”
The plan involves:
- Refocusing curriculum and academic departments around three key areas of strength that are most relevant to meeting the needs of a changing world — Climate, Environment, and Society; Media Arts, Computing, and Design; and Health and Human Behavior — while also sustaining the University’s liberal arts foundation to further drive outcomes and better meet student needs/preferences.
- Streamlining and right-sizing operations to better support the areas of focus and direct limited resources in the most productive way possible. This addresses the financial pressures of lower-than-expected enrollment, which is critical for achieving long-term sustainability. Clark’s Class of 2029 is about 100 students fewer than was projected, as was last year’s incoming class.
- Building reputation, boosting student recruitment, and inspiring pride and engagement through a long-term, successful model.
In addition to building on Clark’s historic strengths, the three areas of distinction were chosen because they align with student interests and create a wide range of career paths for Clark graduates. They will become hubs for interdisciplinary learning, research, and community engagement, and offer students at Clark a unique and outcomes-oriented academic experience.
“Clark is strong, there is great enthusiasm for the Clark student experience, and we do important, impactful work around the world. The opportunity we are seizing now is to harness all of that and come forward with an even more compelling approach to education, more opportunities to advance innovative solutions to big, intractable global challenges, and a more sustainable operating model. That is precisely what our plan for the future accomplishes,” Fithian said.
Over the coming year, current programming will be adjusted, including the addition of new majors, courses, and concentrations, and the elimination of lower-enrolled majors. This will impact the size of the faculty, which will be reduced by 25 to 30 percent over the next three years under the new academic structure. According to Provost John Magee, personnel reductions will be derived from retirements and attrition first, then non-tenure, pre-tenure and adjunct faculty. It’s too soon to determine whether layoffs will impact tenured faculty — there are a number of procedural steps that would need to be addressed first, he said. For staff, a hiring freeze is in place and 5 percent reduction is expected over the next year.
The highly personalized nature of academics at Clark, where students work closely with their professors in and outside the classroom, will continue to be a priority with a target student-faculty ratio of 10:1, Magee said.
Over the past few months, staff size was decreased through attrition, retirements, and layoffs, with an additional 5 percent reduction anticipated in the next year.
Fithian and Magee yesterday held two town hall meetings on June 3 to discuss the features of the plan and address questions and concerns from faculty and staff.
The plan calls for the introduction of new options for students, such as a three-year accelerated undergraduate degree (the same requirements fulfilled over a shorter period of time, inclusive of summer studies and experiential opportunities), and retaining and building upon popular offerings, like the 4+1 Accelerated Master’s Degree and The Honors Experience. This year, the University is introducing The Clark Experience, which brings together an exceptional classroom education with a thoughtfully integrated system of career preparation, skill-building, hands-on learning, wellness resources, and community connections.
The plan also prioritizes well-enrolled academic programs and reimagines traditional, siloed structures around departments, majors, minors, and courses, as well as a redesigned approach to career services. Both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the Clark School of Business will continue to be offered through the School and in even closer coordination with other professional degree programs at Clark.
“We have developed a plan that builds upon years of collaboration between the administration and faculty expressed in the University’s strategic framework, Clark Inspired. It captures all that is best about Clark and offers our students even better outcomes, enhanced academic support, more ways to engage in hands-on experiential learning, and more flexible, interdisciplinary learning,” Magee said. “While change is hard and we’ve had to make difficult decisions, I am tremendously excited about the future at Clark.”