Boston Architectural College Announces New Vision and Strategic Plan Highlighting Innovation and Expanding Global Access to Future-Oriented Design Education

BOSTON, Feb. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Boston Architectural College (BAC) today announced the launching of its bold new vision through its 'BAC to the Future' strategic plan. Through this innovative plan, the BAC's focus will be transforming current programs and creating future-oriented design programs accessible to students in the U.S. and around the world.

The Boston Architectural College campus at 320 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.

The plan is the culmination of efforts that began in 2019, spearheaded by President Mahesh Daas. "This bold initiative demonstrates the institution's long-term commitment to inclusive access to world-class design education for all students," said Daas. "Our focus is to lead the way by creatively responding to sector-wide changes in higher education, and harnessing the wisdom gained during pandemic times."

Throughout the BAC's collaborative process, leadership engaged students, faculty, staff, trustees, and creative instigators as well as gathered insights for the institution's future direction through "think wrong" design workshops and other creative fora along with conducting rigorous strategy validation studies to inform the plan. The five-year plan has been enthusiastically approved by the BAC Board of Trustees.

This year-long effort translated into a set of six vision statements:

• We envision delivering on our educational mission of diversity and inclusion to help our students fully actualize their potential.
• We envision the college as a global network, a cloud canopy with virtual aerial roots that capture social differences and facilitate the learning of the curious, the creative, the ambitious, the exemplary traditional and nontraditional students irrespective of social identities and geographic location.
• We envision a network of seamless flows propelling students from preK-12 systems and across national and international postsecondary systems into design education.
• We envision a world where design literacy is an essential quality of global citizens, and design thinking becomes a basic skill for all to build a sustainable, thriving, and robust community.
• We envision promoting design literacy and design thinking to build a resilient and flourishing society.
• We envision the BAC evolving into a robust and growing institution, and the BAC's educational innovations emulated across the higher education spectrum.

This vision combined with supporting goals and strategies enable the BAC to undertake nine key initiatives in areas such as Academic Excellence, Social Justice, Global Growth, Design Entrepreneurship, and others.

One of the early initiatives, The BAC Cloud Canopy™ platform was expedited and launched its first component, The BAC Cloud Lab™ during the Coronavirus pandemic to meet students' emerging needs. The groundbreaking platform offers cloud-based access to coursework, labs, events, and services on any enabled device—regardless of where students are located around the world.

"Since its inception over 130 years ago, this institution has been a hub promoting creativity and innovation. Its alumni—spread around the globe—continually transform the human experience through the built environment," said Board Chair, Richard Martini, B.Arch. '84. "Now, under the direction of President Daas, the BAC is advancing toward fulfilling its vital mission of diversifying the design fields. Not only does this influence how we approach the global learning experience, but it also prepares our students for producing real world, sustainable solutions."

Founded 131 years ago, The Boston Architectural College is a recognized institution providing excellence in practice-integrated design education to members of diverse communities―with students representing 35 countries. Ranked #1 for Best Graduate School for Earning Potential and #4 for Best Architecture School offering Bachelor's Degrees in the U.S. in 2020 by GradReports, the BAC offers on-site and online bachelors and graduate degrees in architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture, design studies, and continuing education. In 2005, the BAC became the first institution in the U.S. to offer an accredited online degree in architecture. The BAC upholds the importance of inclusive admission, diversity, innovation, dedicated faculty, and the intrinsic value of both academic and experiential education.

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