WKU'S QEP Theme
Engaging Students For Success In A Global Society

A Quality Enhancement Plan, according to SACS, must lead to improvements in the quality of student learning. Western’s QEP theme commits us to pursuing this improvement through an approach sufficiently broad to involve much of the University but at the same time sufficiently focused so that it can be defined, realized in practice, and documented in its effects. The key elements of the QEP are as follows:

ENGAGING STUDENTS

The primary action the QEP theme commits us to is to engage Western students.

“Engagement” at its most basic here may be thought of as connecting students more fully, personally, even holistically, to their studies, to their particular Western experience of higher education, to their thoughtful preparations for careers and full, contributing lives after graduation. Engagement may take place in or out of class, with individuals or groups of students, and may include any number of pedagogies, strategies, or student development experiences.*

FOR SUCCESS

“Engagement” is a means to an end, not an end itself. The end, the essential goal of the QEP project, will be to increase the likelihood of our students’ success. That will be the gold standard of showing that our engagement efforts have improved student learning.

“Success” refers primarily to academic success, to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are recognized by the university community as either basic to the development of a university-educated person or essential to preparing students for success in their chosen fields of study.

Moreover, “success” here also includes the preparation of students to use their academic knowledge and skills—from general education, their major fields, and their entire Western experience—to become productive citizens of a democratic society and to improve the human condition. That is, successful engaged learning will not only advance the personal and professional aspirations of individual students but will also explicitly address their capacities, even responsibilities, to contribute to their communities and society.

IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY

Although our graduates will contribute most directly to their local communities, they must also be prepared to function effectively in a global context. A major task of the University is to prepare students for the reality of living, working, and contributing to society within this context by (a) helping them understand the global environment, (b) fostering the skills needed to function in a world economy, and (c) helping them feel at home in the face of global diversity.

*See WKU SACS website for examples.