Drexel Student Learning Priorities

The Student Learning Priorities were developed collaboratively by employers, Drexel faculty members, and administrators who set out to identify those qualities of mind that best support student success during their education at Drexel and as they move into careers or graduate education. The Learning Priorities provide a common language and focus for a continuous conversation on student learning across Drexel University.

Core intellectual and practical skill areas:

Diverse students the world over who seek rigorous academic preparation grounded in experiential, co-op enhanced learning will recognize Drexel as the gold standard. Drexel University will:

• Infuse the Drexel Student Learning Priorities across all modes of instruction and all programs—on campus, online, hybrid, undergraduate, graduate, and professional. Create a personalized educational experience that allows students to customize their course of study, and track student outcomes to measure mastery and achievement, while maintaining our commitment to preparing a diverse, productive, and global citizenry with specialized knowledge and professional expertise grounded in a deep appreciation for the arts, humanities, and natural and social sciences.
• Focus on experiential education of all forms, including aggressive expansion of co-operative positions regionally, nationally, and globally to include mentored research; nonprofit, government, and creative work; and opportunities for field and clinical experiences. Ensure close alignment between academics and the co-op experience. Invest heavily in co-operative education and job placement programs, both domestically and internationally. Build a branding and marketing campaign that demonstrates to the public the immense impact of co-operative education and the success Drexel has in placing our students in desirable careers upon graduation and in encouraging and supporting innovative entrepreneurs. Differentiate co-ops from internships, demonstrating how co-op is more meaningful and valuable. Align programs with projected job growth to ensure that graduates continue to be prepared to compete in areas with high workforce needs, such as engineering, health care, energy, sustainability, and other technology-intensive fields. And finally, prepare those students embarking upon careers as entrepreneurs with the skills and experience to succeed.


Co-op students at McNeil Nutritionals, LLC.

• Engage our faculty as Drexel's intellectual leaders and provide the necessary resources to develop a cadre of talented, pioneering, collaborative, productive, and diverse scholars dedicated to fostering student learning, advancing knowledge, demonstrating excellence in their fields, developing innovative programs, and working entrepreneurially.
• Direct financial investment to academic priorities, targeting academic units with the highest potential for excellence, key areas of societal concern, and emerging fields in which Drexel can build a critical mass of talent. An innovative and current example is The Center for Visual Decision Informatics, an NSF-approved, corporate-funded national research center developed to address and to solve the problems of a world drowning in data and starving for knowledge. Through start-up money, resources, self-governance, and the possibility of building degree-granting programs, we plan to encourage faculty to form hubs that focus on multi-disciplinary work. Drexel also will initiate a comprehensive academic program review and alignment process that improves and strengthens existing programs, eliminates low-quality or outmoded programs, coordinates and consolidates dispersed programs, and resolves long-standing boundary issues among academic units, especially in the health sciences.