Strategic Goals
2025-2030
Building upon a 110-year history to move the college forward
Preparing our students, clients, and partners for the business world of tomorrow
Our Plan
This plan is prefaced on a drive to accomplish more—more than what is required, more than what is currently imagined—always staying true to a vision of excellence, access, and impact at a university on the rise.
This plan is the product of many discussions among our senior leadership team, executive committee, faculty and staff, advisory board members, corporate partners, and alumni. In these conversations, we evaluated what has been accomplished in recent years, what areas needed attention or expansion, and where the worlds of business and education are heading in the future.
A document like this is never truly final, but our hope is that this blueprint of goals and related actions will lay the foundation for years to come and continue to yield a bright future.
Fostering Learning Through Action
We foster learning through the creation, sharing, and application of knowledge. By producing job-ready graduates and advancing thought leadership, we meet the needs of organizations, their leaders, and our broader constituencies. Our success depends on attracting exceptional students, faculty, and professional staff, and bringing them together in world-class learning environments.
Measured by the career outcomes of our graduates and the societal impact of our research, our strategic goals focus on knowledge creation, educational excellence, collaborative partnerships, and investment in our people and resources.
Our Foundation
Our Vision
The Haslam College of Business inspires our students, colleagues, business, and society.
We challenge the status quo, enhance knowledge, drive change, and transform the world.
Our Mission
We are a community serving the citizens and businesses of Tennessee and beyond. We support learning by creating, sharing, and applying knowledge. We succeed when our work, and that of our students and partners, generates nationally and internationally recognized outcomes that improve the world.
Our Why
WE LIVE OUR VALUES
We view our work through the lens of the impact we can have on our greater communities. We reach out and work with people from a variety of backgrounds and viewpoints to multiply our insights. In all we do, we strive to act with integrity and focus on impact in its most practical forms. We ask ourselves how the work we do will affect others, from our team to our society. We strive to tackle the big challenges of our time and create solutions in which we, our students, and our partners have ownership and impact. We believe that by so doing, we move success beyond possible to probable.
Goals
Creating and Applying Knowledge
Maintain a culture encouraging world-class research, scholarly activity, and thought leadership that generates, applies, and effectively communicates new knowledge to benefit business and society.
More
Goal
Maintain a culture encouraging world-class research, scholarly activity, and thought leadership that generates, applies, and effectively communicates new knowledge to benefit business and society.
We Will
- Recruit highly productive faculty and create additional named professorships based on instructional demands and emerging research interests
- Host niche academic conferences and support faculty and staff in high visibility professional association roles
- Regularly assess the college’s contributions to knowledge through journals and publications
- Expand efforts to communicate knowledge created from research, scholarly activity, and thought leadership to business and society
- Expand global research collaboration through increased strategic partnerships and global faculty development programs
- Enhance PhD program quality and outcomes
Success Means
Thought leadership, led by the brightest minds in their fields, addresses the challenges of a globally connected economy. Our impacts are felt within hometowns and across continents.
“An inquisitive, industry-smart faculty is the hallmark of a top tier business school. At Haslam, the question is not about pursuing compelling research, applying it to practice, or training the next generation of faculty leaders. The answer is ever and always ‘all of these.’”
— James “Jim” Newsome, (HCB, ’76, MBA, ’77)
CEO, JimNewsome3,
South Carolina State Ports Authority, President and CEO (Retired)
Educating with Excellence, Promoting Student Engagement & Career Success
Provide Haslam students with meaningful learning experiences and an educational environment that enhances the Volunteer experience and prepares them for personal and professional success.
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Goal
Provide Haslam students with meaningful learning experiences and an educational environment that enhances the Volunteer experience and prepares them for personal and professional success.
We Will
- Enrich our academic experience with courses and curriculum that are well-designed, well-delivered, welcoming, experiential, reflective, and innovative
- Continue to deliver best-in-class academic experiences through a college-wide honors program, integration of emerging technologies, curriculum changes, and more
- Strengthen opportunities that contribute to a well-rounded student, including internships, international and entrepreneurship-related experiences, undergraduate research, volunteer service, and engagement in student professional organizations
- Continue enhancing student post-graduation outcomes through key employer partnerships
- Reach undergraduate and graduate student enrollment and degree progression targets that enhance the student experience
- Develop and launch an online undergraduate business degree program that brings a quality education within reach of a larger populace
Success Means
We invest in our students, offering top quality programming, scholarships, global experiences, and professional development. We work to ensure current and future Haslam students from all backgrounds enter their careers ready to well represent themselves and the university.
“The economy and education are the two keys to the future…part of education is to train outstanding young men and women in business. That’s why the Haslam College of Business is so important.”
— James A. Haslam II (HCB, ’52)
Building and Enhancing Collaborative Partnerships
Engage with campus, business, and society to promote thought partnerships, shared learning, and increase the impact and visibility of the college and its activities.
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Goal
Engage with campus, business, and society to promote thought partnerships, shared learning, and increase the impact and visibility of the college and its activities.
We Will
- Nurture connections with other UT colleges through shared programming and prioritize industry and government-facing centers, forums, and initiatives
- Continue to expand the reputation and reach of graduate and executive education programs through faculty hiring, online program delivery, and curriculum changes to increase appeal to corporations, working professionals, and international students
- Cultivate Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation activities to more effectively serve as a connection point across campus for those interested in entrepreneurship
- Increase the college’s market visibility with all constituents, with special attention given to fostering our reputation among corporate leaders
Success Means
More than at any point in the college’s history, students and businesses choose to partner with Haslam as they pursue their best futures. From cutting-edge curricula to faculty who are leaders in their field, the value of connecting with Haslam stands apart.
“Reputation comes not from an idea but from action. By partnering with industry and anticipating the needs of business, Haslam is both creating stronger graduates and positively impacting areas from the supply chain to the financial markets. The UT Haslam College of Business exudes excellence.”
— Holly Sullivan, (UT, ’94, ’98)
Head of worldwide economic development, Amazon
Investing in Human, Physical, and Financial Capabilities
Invest in infrastructure and processes designed to inspire and support faculty, staff, and students and enable them to achieve to the best of their abilities.
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Goal
Invest in infrastructure and processes designed to inspire and support faculty, staff and students and enable them to achieve
to the best of their abilities.
We Will
- Increase available classrooms and faculty and staff workspaces through timely construction of an additional business building
- Continue investing in the college’s technological infrastructure
- Develop a comprehensive student, faculty, and staff mental health and wellness program addressing needs not currently addressed by campus-level programs
- Foster a welcoming college culture where understanding and respect are practiced
- Invest in faculty and staff professional development and collaboration opportunities
- Develop a “right size, right plan” scholarship strategy for undergraduate and graduate students
- Continue to improve financial reporting processes that enhance decision-making within the college and the university
Success Means
We invest in our students, offering top quality programming, scholarships, global experiences, and professional development. We work to ensure that current and future Haslam students from all backgrounds enter their careers ready to well represent themselves and the university.
“We are, at the end of every day, a human capital organization. Our facilities and processes must support that truth. It is our people who make the important work we do possible and take it beyond work to a mission aimed at changing lives.”
— Stephen L. Mangum
Dean and Stokely Foundation Leadership Chair, Haslam College of Business
Excellence Attracts
Big—and compelling—things are happening at Haslam, things of which people want to be a part. Our dedication to quality, access, belonging, relevant research, and educational achievement shapes everything we do and how we do it. Through the actions of this plan, and with the support of our partners across the campus, our communities, and across the profit, not-for-profit and governmental sectors of the economy, we pledge to move forward with dedication and impact.
10,106
students
(undergraduate and master’s)
102.9%
undergrad enrollment growth in 10 years (2015-2024)
Work-Ready
85% of graduating under-graduates have completed at least one internship
InVOLved
Home to 38 student and professional organizations
145%
increase in applications since 2021
Freshmen on the rise
4.07 average high school GPA for the 2024 cohort
Home to 3 of the 5 largest majors at UT
(Finance, Marketing, and Supply Chain Management)
208
full-time faculty
Community-minded
42,950 volunteer hours completed by 4,100 students in 2023-2024
Global
21% of graduates studied abroad in 2023-2024; 53% increase in percent of students studying abroad since 2021
Market-Ready
#1 worldwide in Bloomberg certifications
Thank You
to those who have helped shape this work and those who will carry it forward. The Haslam Executive Committee, which consists of the college’s deans, department heads, and representatives from accessibility and community relations, advancement, and marketing and public relations, engaged in the deep conversations that shaped this plan. We are particularly thankful for the vision set by our university leaders. Our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and advisory board members, as well as many other stakeholders, played a vital role in shaping the whole.