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Drive to Twenty Five Home Page

Washington State University

Drive to
Twenty Five

Washington State University will be recognized as one of the nation’s top 25 public research universities, preeminent in research and discovery, teaching, and engagement by 2030.

Drive to 25: A roadmap to guide WSU’s future

Washington State University’s goal of becoming one of the nation’s top 25 public research universities by 2030—more commonly referred to as the Drive to 25, or D25—is the University’s highest strategic priority.

Publicly launched in 2017, the D25 objectives guide decisions about institutional goals, priorities, and financial investments affecting WSU’s teaching, research, and service mission.

Why the Drive to 25?

WSU transforms lives and betters society in remarkable ways. Yet much of the country is unaware of the University’s achievements in fields ranging from the plant sciences and veterinary medicine to the humanities and business.

Raising the University’s prestige through the D25 is essential to WSU’s future wellbeing. Achieving top 25 status will:

  • Boost student enrollment
  • Attract additional external funding
  • Create new public and private partnerships
  • Provide students with a transformational educational experience
  • Add value to the degrees of alumni

D25 reflects WSU Strategic Plan

The Drive to 25 builds on the cornerstones of the University’s Strategic Plan and its two pivotal goals:

  • WSU will offer a transformative educational experience to undergraduate and graduate students
  • WSU will accelerate the development of a preeminent research portfolio

11 metrics to measure progress

Following discussions about the Drive to 25 throughout the WSU system during fall 2016, the University’s senior leadership team and deans identified 11 metrics to measure progress. The metrics are arranged in three categories: AAU-related metrics, peer-comparison related metrics, and WSU-specific metrics.

Groups of faculty, staff, students, and administrators system-wide were formed for each metric in the summer of 2017. During the 2017-18 academic year, the groups identified objectives and created action plans to advance their assigned metric covering the 3-year period of FY2018-FY2020.