Priorities

Early in Chancellor Miranda’s tenure, UIC engaged in a series of intentional conversations with students, faculty and staff to identify shared goals for advancing the university. Feedback gathered through ongoing discussions with key campus stakeholders — including the Senate, student leaders, the Staff Advisory Council, the Academic Professional Advisory Council, deans and the executive cabinet — informed the development of a compelling mission and five overarching institutional priorities. These five priorities have been updated, and two foundational efforts have been added to UIC’s strategy.

Mission

To provide the broadest access to the highest levels of educational, research and clinical excellence.

Priorities

• Accelerate student success by supporting students across the full lifecycle — from access and onboarding to timely graduation and post-graduation success — while closing equity gaps.
• Transform educational programs by reimagining academic programs, curricula and teaching approaches to meet evolving student, workforce and societal needs.
• Expand research and innovation to strengthen discovery, translation and societal impact.
• Amplify and evolve the health system by advancing integrated health education, research and clinical care to enhance outcomes in patient care, health equity and biomedical discovery.
• Build strong partnerships by strengthening collaborations with communities, businesses and civic leaders to expand opportunity and impact.

Foundational efforts

• Build and sustain a strong faculty and staff by recruiting, retaining, developing and supporting faculty and staff to advance excellence across the entire university.
• Implement a data and analytics strategy by using data, analytics and evidence to guide decisions, improve outcomes, and support collaboration and transparency.

Strategic Priorities Task Force

The Strategic Priorities Task Force was established to help define and refine these strategic priorities and foundational efforts, all designed to guide UIC over the next five to 10 years. Members of the task force represent the full array of the university, with representatives from faculty, staff and students, and with attention to representatives from UIC’s Senate.

The work of the task force is intended to support a shared institutional framework that advances UIC’s mission, informs planning and investment decisions, aligns and energizes fundraising efforts, and strengthens the university’s long-term impact across education, research, clinical care and community engagement.

Sprint

On May 18-19, 2026, UIC convened a two-day Strategic Priorities Task Force Sprint focused on setting an ambitious vision to advance the university’s strategic priorities and foundational efforts. The task force members engaged in a collaborative working session designed to identify areas of alignment, develop initial goals and establish a framework to guide future planning, engagement and assessment efforts. This initial framing is designed to provide ample opportunities for input from the broader university community.

Share feedback

Members of the UIC community are invited to provide feedback, ideas, and suggestions to the members of the task force as this important work continues. Please email priorities-taskforce@uic.edu.