The Institution

Arcadia University is a private institution in Glenside, Pennsylvania, serving more than 3,600 undergraduate and graduate students. Known for its values-based education and global focus, the university sought to strengthen assessment, planning, and institutional effectiveness while supporting a more adaptive approach to strategy.

A historic stone building on a college campus

The Challenge

As Arcadia developed an adaptive strategic plan and prepared for accreditation, leaders recognized the need for a more flexible system to connect assessment, planning, reporting, and institutional data. Rather than adapting their processes to fit software, they wanted a platform that could evolve alongside the university’s unique strategy and support transparent, data-informed decision-making.

The Approach

Plan it. Prove it. Do it.

Plan it. Do it. Prove it.

Using the Nuventive Improvement Platform, Arcadia created a centralized environment for strategic planning, assessment, reporting, and institutional effectiveness.

  • Plan it. Align strategic initiatives, operational plans, assessment activities, and institutional goals within a single adaptive framework.
  • Do it. Aggregate data from across the institution, simplify reporting, and provide faculty and staff with timely access to trusted information and dashboards.
  • Prove it. Measure progress through a single source of truth that connects academic and administrative initiatives to institutional priorities and supports continuous improvement.

In Their Words

There’s no doubt there are many ways we could have built a data-informed culture, but Nuventive has really helped us leapfrog this transformation. Having a single source of data that the community agrees upon is powerful because it democratizes information, builds confidence, trust, and transparency.

— Ajay Nair, Ph.D., President, Arcadia University

The Results

  • Unified academic and administrative units within a single platform for planning and assessment.
  • Reduced reporting burdens, allowing faculty and staff to spend more time on improvement efforts.
  • Turned assessment and institutional data into actionable insights for leadership decision-making.
  • Created a flexible platform that supports both traditional academic assessment and diverse institutional initiatives.
  • Established a single source of truth that improves transparency and aligns planning across the university.