Ensuring Quality Learning at Webster Geneva Campus

Our approach to the University’s strategy to ensure quality takes into account the following philosophy:

  1. That a focus on continuous quality improvement helps better achieve the Webster Geneva Campus mission,
  2. That quality processes are integral for a sustainable university and campus,
  3. That all members and stakeholders of the Webster Geneva Campus community can contribute to quality assessment, and
  4. That Webster Geneva Campus communicates and disseminates the results and impact of quality assurance processes.

Our aspiration is to continue to grow and deepen this culture of quality assessment and continuous improvement throughout the Webster Geneva Campus community.

Quality Assurance Strategy

The strategic plan of Webster Geneva Campus flows from our University’s mission, vision and values. The plan and the objectives it outlines are defined by the stakeholders of Webster Geneva Campus and approved by the Board. From these inputs emerges an institutional strategic plan that will drive the campus for a three-year cycle.

See Institutional Strategic Plan (2021-24)

The QA planning cycle is embedded in the University's strategic planning process and works on a three-year cycle:

Descriptive diagram with two circles linked together by arrows.

Image Transcript

The 3-year strategic planning process appears as a circle on the left and the annual QA planning cycle as a circle on the right.

The strategic planning process starts in the lower left with Strategic Orientation and Plan which feeds into Select Strategic Themes. This then goes to Per-Theme Goals and Objectives which feeds to Assess Themes which goes back to the beginning, Strategic Orientation and Plan.

The Per-Theme Goals and Objectives in the strategic planning process feeds over to the QA planning cycle in its Select/Update Success Metrics step.

The QA reporting cycle starts at the top with the Select/Update Success Metrics step which feeds to Operation and then on to Measure Performance. From Measure Performance it goes to Review and Update Processes and back to the beginning.

The Measure Performance step in the QU planning cycle feeds back to the strategic planning process during its Assess Themes step. These two steps, Measure Performance and Assess Themes, both are linked to Reporting and Communication.

 

Through ongoing discussions with our stakeholders, a limited number of themes (or "pillars") linked to our mission, vision, and values are selected to drive the strategic plan. Each theme is then studied by a working group composed of staff members, professors, and students to define specific objectives and metrics, which are monitored by the Quality Assurance Office.

From the participatory process of the current planning cycle (2021–2024), the campus community developed the following five pillars of the QA strategy, which closely align with our core values, to be monitored by the Quality Assurance Office:

  1. Student-centered knowledge and skill acquisition through liberal arts education.
  2. Diversity and inclusion initiatives.
  3. Student progress through degree completion.
  4. Creativity and innovation impact.
  5. Post-graduation student success.

Students, faculty and staff have participated in the work of internal committees related to these five pillars.

Annual Reporting

At the heart of our quality assurance cycle is an annual reporting process, whereby University departmental-level goals and activities are linked to our institutional strategic plan. This annual report process allows operational and academic departments to enter a continuous improvement cycle of operation, performance assessment, and revision of operational processes, structure and methods. Performance is reported annually by each department to the Quality Assurance Office, which compiles a global assessment of progress toward institutional objectives in the strategic plan to produce the institutional annual report that is published on the University website and presented to the Board of our Foundation (Fondation Webster).