Robert Dickeson’s Prioriziting Academic Programs and Services (2010) is being touted by the Provincial Government as a useful manual to direct conversations about strategic planning.  Essentially the process involves collecting a great deal of data about the university enterprise and use that data to drive informed decisions about allocation of resources.

The key to a successful prioritization exercise will be that it be transparent and collaborative, that the goals be clear (it is not a slashing and burning exercise, rather it is knowledge gathering exercise which will allow everyone involved in decision making to make reasoned decisions about program growth, maintenance and reductions), and that the process be sufficiently robust that it can be used reliably over many cycles.