Individual Excellence
As America’s first research university, Johns Hopkins has defined the modern American institution of higher education. The university is committed to a simple premise: that it is the best place in the world to grow, discover, and achieve. To continue that legacy, the institution must attract the most talented minds and, once they are here, help them realize their full promise.
For our students, this means unparalleled opportunities for intellectual growth and accomplishment and connections to teachers, mentors, the community, and one another. For our faculty, it means an intellectual environment that supports bold innovation, freedom of thought, collegiality and discovery, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. And for our staff, it means a workplace that respects their contributions and provides meaningful opportunities for professional development and advancement.
The Goals
Build Johns Hopkins’ undergraduate experience so it stands among the top 10 in the nation.
Our undergraduates infuse energy into the entire university, using their time here not only to learn but to experiment, to challenge, and to push past established boundaries in a wide range of endeavors. Our job is to help these enterprising minds build stronger and deeper connections with one another, with their faculty, with the neighborhoods around our campuses, and with the rest of the university.
The Ten by Twenty has ushered in a myriad of new investments in the undergraduate program. Since our second progress report, a record-breaking gift has allowed the university to eliminate student loans from need-based financial aid packages and commit to need-blind admissions going forward. We’ve also created several initiatives to help students be civically engaged and ready for the next steps in their careers after Commencement, with tailored supports for first-generation college students. We also launched a new home base to enable our youngest researchers to make discoveries. We continue to expand our wide range of initiatives that are designed specifically to build the undergraduate experience and connect our students to one another, on campus and off.
Build on our legacy as America’s first research university by ensuring that at least two-thirds of our PhD programs stand among the top 20 in their fields.
Johns Hopkins brought the European university model to America, becoming the country’s first research university and setting the standard for American doctoral education. Training PhDs is a defining feature of our legacy, so it’s imperative that our schools and our entire community work together to chart a graduate education strategy that not only aspires to best practices but defines those practices.
Since our last Ten by Twenty progress report, the university has positioned itself to better serve its graduate student population, both when they are here and when they are entering the job market. We have made more data available to our students and put new measures in place to strengthen our graduate programs, and we are working harder than ever to prepare today’s scholars for the professional landscape of tomorrow.
Attract the very best faculty and staff in the world through a welcoming and inclusive environment that values performance and celebrates professional achievement.
The university’s faculty and staff are the bedrock of our institution, grounding our research, teaching, and service. More than any other factor, our ability to attract, support, and, perhaps most important, retain faculty and staff will determine our future for decades to come. We must commit ourselves to practices and programs that enable us to recruit faculty and staff who honor our standards.
Since the second Ten by Twenty progress report, the university has doubled its commitment to two awards programs that celebrate and support innovative faculty members, while following a roadmap for meaningful and lasting progress toward increased diversity and inclusion. We are striving to make Johns Hopkins a place that faculty and staff call home not just for part of their careers but for their whole professional life.