Introduction to the Strategic Plan

NJIT’s 2020 Vision strategic plan transformed the university, fostering unprecedented growth in enrollment, faculty, and research. NJIT’s 2025 plan, Building on a Strong Foundation, sought to continue that success, but was disrupted by global events including a pandemic, rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence, and changing demographics of college-going students. This plan evolves the university’s 2025 plan to address these challenges directly. Through NJIT Makes An Innovation Nexus, NJIT will forge ahead to make an Innovation Nexus that transforms the public polytechnic research university experience through unparalleled education, limitless innovation, and pioneering applied research, all designed to cultivate a diverse community of leaders and professionals. This will be accomplished through the six priorities discussed in this document.

Our students of the future sit at the center of our Innovation Nexus and our first priority is Learner Advancement and Success. Our transformation of the public polytechnic research university experience begins with the educational opportunities we provide. Building on NJIT’s strong legacy, we seek to make experiential learning the hallmark of an NJIT education. By providing our students with the opportunity to participate in internships, co-op programs, study abroad experiences, undergraduate research, and service-learning programming, all students will engage in meaningful real-world experiences. These interactions will provide students with hands-on experiences that contribute to their personal growth as well as to the economy in New Jersey, the region, the nation, and the globe.

Our ability to advance student success and reach the objectives defined in our first priority rests upon the excellence of our faculty, and Faculty Success is our next priority. Continuing to build NJIT’s cadre of dedicated world-class faculty and developing an aspirational campus master plan that creates an environment that best allows them to share their knowledge and expertise with our students defines our work in this area. As we continue to recruit faculty who are the foremost authorities in their respective fields, we will also enhance our support for the translation and commercialization of their research. At the same time, we will work to better integrate our lecturers and adjuncts into the university community, ensuring that all members of our community are best able to utilize their skills and talents in service of our mission.

Building on the strengths of our world-renowned faculty and their expertise in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and advanced materials, the objectives in our third priority, Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, focus on strengthening our position as a premier research university, accelerating research through strategic collaborations, catalyzing intellectual property commercialization, and enhancing our research infrastructure to facilitate research success in a highly competitive landscape.

Our fourth priority, Engaged Community, positions NJIT as the nexus of innovation in our home city of Newark, regionally, and globally, fostering a dynamic ecosystem that nurtures learning, research, creativity, and technological advancements. In this role, NJIT will bring together industries, government agencies, alumni, faculty, staff, and students to foster innovations that address societal challenges.

The final two priorities outline essential objectives that underpin the efforts of the first four priorities. These crosscutting priorities are Digital Transformation and Fiscal Excellence and Resource Stewardship.

The objectives within our crosscutting priority of Digital Transformation focus on developing the infrastructure needed to enable our community to best leverage technology in service of our mission. Creating a seamless, flexible, technology-enabled teaching and learning environment will help us redefine the student experience. Integrating the latest technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence, will allow us to create a truly digital workplace and to enhance our operations, our research, and our entrepreneurship. By embedding and utilizing technology across all aspects of our enterprise, we seek to truly become a boundless smart campus to serve the students of the future.

The Fiscal Excellence and Resource Stewardship crosscutting priority proposes objectives recognizing and expanding the university’s business intelligence capabilities to support strategic decision-making.

Other objectives focus on strengthening our resource development processes, developing responsive and transparent methods for investing, strategically growing revenue, and innovating revenue diversification.

As a critical spoke in the Innovation Nexus, NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) will spur technological innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit through a stronger alignment with the university with a particular focus on expanded support for faculty research, innovations, and intellectual property. An enhanced Continued Learning portfolio, offered through the Learning and Development Initiative, will position NJIT and NJII as strategic partners in regional workforce development, reskilling, upskilling, credentialing, and career transitions. NJII will also refocus its efforts to support local tech companies and startups.

In NJIT Makes An Innovation Nexus, each of our four priorities and two crosscutting priorities are discussed in detail. Objectives within each, the actions we will take to achieve these objectives, and the ways in which we will measure our success are presented for each priority. We invite you to explore NJIT Makes An Innovation Nexus and share in our vision of redefining the public polytechnic university as an active and vibrant Innovation Nexus whose physical and digital infrastructures are visualized in the diagram below.