A Banner Year for the College of Education

A Banner Year for the College of Education

Despite negative reports about the financial condition of the State of Illinois and its impact on the University of Illinois, this has been a banner year for the College in terms of revenue generation and sustainable growth. On Tuesday, April 13, the College leadership team shared financial trend data with the Vice Chancellor Richard Wheeler and Vice Provost Barbara Wilson. The team also provided an update on the many initiatives that have been implemented since the creation of the Strategic Plan in 2007.

As a result of significant effort on the part of faculty and staff, the College has experienced positive revenue growth in advancement, external funding, and online programs. As a result of the increasing financial support through alumni and corporate gifts, external grants, and self-supporting academic programs, the College has been able to absorb the significant cuts that have been applied to all units across campus. Even with reductions of its annual operating budget, the College is well-positioned to maintain and expand the quality of its academic programs and outreach efforts.

As shown on the slides that were presented to the Vice Chancellor and Vice Provost (PDF), the College has experienced a 36.6% increase in external funding in the past five years. Last year the increase was nearly 10%. This positive trend is the result of faculty placing greater emphasis on the importance of seeking external funds to support their research. Much of the success can also be attributed to the hard work of the staff in the Bureau of Educational Research (BER) who identify potential funding opportunities and work with faculty to prepare competitive grant proposals.

The growth of the online programs continues to generate significant revenue for the College. With nearly $3 million dollars in tuition revenue last year, the College collected more tuition through its self-supporting programs than any other college on the Urbana-Champaign campus. New programs are still being proposed and developed, and we are expanding our marketing efforts to further increase our enrollments. In addition, we are in the process of implementing a new centralized support service that will consolidate department-level support groups into a more efficient and cost-effective operation.

We are excited about numerous opportunities to reach out to new international markets for academic programs, exchange programs, and instruction collaborations. The College was recently awarded a competitive grant to host 20 undergraduate students from the Hong Kong Institute of Education. These students will participate in education courses and be immersed in a variety of other cultural and educational activities. We are currently in the negotiation phase for numerous study tours, dual degree programs, and individual course offerings to a wide variety of international agencies, universities, and individual students. Each of these programs will enrich the global awareness of our students and faculty and result in positive revenue that can be reinvested new College programs and initiatives.

The Office of Advancement continues to build on its early success in the Brilliant Future Campaign, having already exceeded its initial fundraising goal. In fact, support from donors continues to outpace our projections, which allows us to offer greater financial support for students, expand our prestigious endowed faculty positions, and provide a solid financial base to bolster our four strategic initiatives.

In addition to the increasing growth of our revenue generating activities, we continue to see great impact from the work of our four strategic initiatives. The Forum on the Future of Public Education collaborated on a highly competitive "Race to the Top" proposal and assisted in the development of "New Learning: A Charter for Change in Education." This Charter outlines a ten-point plan for doing things differently, and better, in education. The Charter received accolades from Mr. Miguel Del Valle, former State of Illinois Senator and current Chair of the P-20 Council for the Illinois Board of Higher Education. For more information about the Charter, please contribute to the dialogue at education.illinois.edu/newlearning/

The STEM Collaborative continues to be an important initiative in the College. Our faculty are currently involved in funded research grants that total over $35 million. The basic goal of this effort is to increase the numbers of students who pursue advanced study and future careers in fields related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The launch of the Ubiquitous Learning Institute took place this month with an informative lecture on new forms of learning from Dr. Chris Dede of Harvard University. Dr. Dede's lecture can be viewed at education.illinois.edu/uli. The event also included the announcement of the newly published book entitled Ubiquitous Learning, edited by Bill Cope and Dean Mary Kalantzis.

The Center for Education in Small Urban Communities continues to reach out in collaborative ways to help promote systematic change in our local public schools. Staff from the Center are constantly in schools working with teachers and administrators to improve the quality of teaching and learning. The Center is also actively preparing grant proposals, collaborating on the Youth Literature Festival planning, and seeking new ways to better connect the university with the local schools and community.

Finally, the College volunteered last year to participate in a pilot test of a new campus-initiated external review process. The external review focused on all aspects of the College and resulted in a very positive reaction from the four external reviewers. The review also identified several areas that could be enhanced to improve the quality of our programs and encourage new ways of working for better efficiency and cost savings. A summary of the changes that resulted from the external review can be found in the response letter (PDF).

Looking ahead, the College continues its commitment to excellence. We anticipate additional growth in advancement, external funding, and online programs. Through our four strategic initiatives, we embrace the opportunity for further impact on our local, national, and international communities.