Message from Provost Cyril Clarke: Virginia Tech Global Distinction Update/Progress

Dear Colleagues,

As many of you are aware, last December we branded the university's continuing efforts to accentuate our academic excellence and become a top 100 global institution as the Virginia Tech Global Distinction. This goal reflects our commitment to institutional excellence across our tripartite missions of education, research and outreach, and positions the university as a destination for world-class faculty, staff, students, and partners serving the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the world. It is one of two prioritized university goals, the other being the Virginia Tech Advantage, which is focused on student access, affordability and academic success.

In support of Global Distinction, a steering committee led by Executive Vice Provost Don Taylor and Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation Dan Sui was charged to help us determine how the university can empower faculty, staff, and students to break new ground in impactful scholarship. The steering committee, with representation from academic, research and administrative partners across the institution, began by assessing the university’s strengths, performance gaps relative to peer institutions, strategies for closing these gaps, and suggestions for maximizing global visibility and future investment.

The steering committee is now engaged in the next phase of its charge, which involves identification of a select number of prioritized actions that are most likely to advance Virginia Tech’s global reputation as well as estimation of the investments that will be needed to achieve this goal. Outcomes being used to assess progress include the following:

• Scholarly impact (e.g., citation impact, publication of books and monographs; curation of designs, visual art and artistic performances, etc.)
• Extramural grant and contract expenditures 
• Distinctive faculty awards, fellowships and memberships 
• Research-based doctoral education
• Postdoctoral associate training

Virginia Tech already has several university-level programs that exemplify approaches that positively impact outcomes associated with global distinction. These include thematic and investment research institutes, the Destination Area 2.0 program, research-based doctoral programs, and both capital and operational improvements to research facilities and infrastructure. Moving forward, the steering committee will review these approaches to assess their success, validate them as necessary, and identify other programs and approaches that are likely to be impactful.

In order to track progress and outcomes pertinent to Virginia Tech’s R1 classification and land grant mission, we will compare our performance against other peer institutions using carefully selected rankings, such as the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking and the THE Impact Ranking. These rankings are not the primary focus of Virginia Tech Global Distinction but represent proxies that allow us to measure progress towards our strategic interests.

To ensure that the steering committee is informed and responsive to input provided by the campus community, a Global Distinction Feedback and Implementation Subcommittee will be established. The President of the Faculty Senate, who is a voting member of the steering committee, will chair this subcommittee.

As the Global Distinction Steering Committee progresses in its work and recommendations begin to take shape, your feedback and insights will be pivotal. Please accept my appreciation for your unwavering commitment to Virginia Tech and your contributions to our shared goals.

Cyril