November 4, 2009

The purpose of this exercise was to determine our positioning statement that uniquely sets us apart from our competitors. We received more than 800 internal and external opinions that helped shape the outcome. With this input, we better understood how the Faculty is perceived internally and externally and identified gaps that exist between internal realities and external perceptions. This input served the basis to form our positioning statement. 

In 2007, the Faculty engaged the firm Interbrand to guide us through a strategic communications exercise to determine our unique position in the higher education marketplace. This process consulted 800 members of our community, in addition to external leaders at institutions such as Waterloo and MIT, as well as senior leaders at U of T.

In total, we consulted the following individuals or resources:

• Core Faculty Team to determine major decisions for process – 8 members including the Dean, academic and administrative leaders
• Comprehensive Faculty Team of senior administrative and academic leadership, alumni, donors, students, and U of T Strategic Communications to participate in two major workshops – 30 members
• Internal communications audit in 2006 and 2008 to evaluate more than 70 Faculty publications and websites
• External communications audit of identified competitors: U of Waterloo, McGill, MIT. (Note – Interbrand challenged the Comprehensive Faculty Team to select only three competitors as part of this process, (which, as you can imagine, was very difficult).
• Internal administrative and academic leadership interviews – 15 professors, 11 staff.
• Impact workshop with Comprehensive Faculty Team.
• External leadership interviews to determine gaps between internal perceptions and external or perceived perceptions – 26 interviews
• Review of National Survey of Student Engagement
• Review of Engineering’s prospective undergraduate student survey of admissions acceptances and declines
• Faculty focus groups – 10 groups of up to 10 professors; all faculty members were invited to participate
• Impact workshop with Comprehensive Faculty Team to determine positioning statement and steps to move forward
• Online survey of all undergraduate and graduate students as well as focus group participants to validate the position – 671 responses
• Engineering Newsletter request for input to staff, faculty, alumni, and friends of the Faculty