The future of higher education institutions rests on the extent to which they meet the needs of society. A systemic mode of planning provides an ongoing mechanism that assures an institution's responsiveness to society's changing needs. Achieving consensus by appropriate groups regarding environmental assumptions that affect an institution is an…

The components and objectives of North Central Technical College's Planning, Management, and Evaluation System (PME) are presented as a model upon which college administrators can relate institutional goals with societal needs. The report first describes the two-year planning process through which ad hoc committees made up of students, faculty,…

Literature and model programs are reviewed in an examination of the planning environment for post-secondary technical education in the 1980's. The report first discusses the origins and consequences of four trends affecting vocational education: the growing demand for part-time, adult continuing education; increased demands for accountability; the…

During 1977-78, North Central Technical College (NCTC) initiated a comprehensive planning system incorporating diagnostic analyses of both the professional development needs of individual faculty members and the long-term needs of the institution as a whole. The faculty needs analysis was facilitated through an Instructional Development and…