Advancing Plans: Penn Forward Unveiled

The University of Penn has announced the launch of Penn Forward, a strategic planning initiative aimed at shaping its future. This ambitious project seeks to question legacy assumptions, propose bold, implementable strategies, and stay grounded in Penn's values.

Penn Forward consists of working groups made up of faculty, staff, and students. These groups will work diligently this semester, focusing on six domains of action: Undergraduate Education and Innovation, Graduate and Professional Training, Research Strategy and Financing, Global Opportunity and New Markets, Access, Affordability, and Value, and Operational Transformation.

Throughout its history, the University of Penn has continuously innovated in education, scholarship, and service. From its founding in 1740, it has expanded into various fields, including law, business, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and engineering in the late 19th century. In the 1940s, the university modernized its research infrastructure to meet the demands of war and global uncertainty. At the turn of this century, Penn invested in life sciences, community engagement, and expanded access.

Today, there is a powerful opportunity and a deep obligation to shape Penn's future and propel it forward. The university invites everyone in the Penn community to contribute ideas and questions. Success for the working groups means producing strategic clarity and executable choices that reflect Penn's distinctive strengths and rise to the scale of the current moment.

The working groups will move with speed and focus, engaging perspectives from across the Penn community. They aim to make Penn's values visible in its structures and operations, fostering trust that the institution will act wisely, move with purpose, and adapt without losing the primacy of its values. Success also means fostering an environment that prepares students for complexity, equips them for personal fulfillment and societal contribution, prepares graduate and professional students for emerging fields, creates flexible pathways, supports professional readiness, secures new forms of research support, reimagines innovation, broadens Penn's reach geographically, makes Penn more welcoming, clarifies the cost and value of a Penn education, and redesigns and simplifies Penn's business and financial operations.

More details about Penn Forward can be found at upenn.edu/forward. The search results do not contain information about the people involved in the working groups of the Penn Forward initiative or the start date of their operation.

In conclusion, the launch of Penn Forward marks a significant step in the University of Penn's continued commitment to innovation and improvement. By engaging the entire Penn community, the university hopes to create a brighter, more inclusive, and more prosperous future.