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To sketch the strategic plan, Strategic Planning and Risk Management Unit was formulated by the Dean of the college. Several brainstorming sessions were held at the CCSIT by involving selected faculty, staff, current students, and external stakeholders, including the industry, employers, and alumni. Several more meetings were also held with members of the community, in which different people from a variety of social classes were represented. Full support was extended to the unit while sketching the strategic plan for CCSIT from Vice President for Studies, Development and Community Services at IAU.
Before drafting the strategic plan, several brainstorming sessions were held to facilitate a healthy discussion on the future directions for the College. The input of stakeholders who participated in the online sessions was considered. Afterward, Strength Weakness Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis was performed. The analyses revealed the need for further improvement of the quality of curriculum, research & innovation, community engagement, revenue generation, and new academic programs etc. A few of the main priorities of the college are:
Improving the Quality of Graduates
Being the top priority for CCSIT, more resources and efforts have been devoted to set high teaching and learning standards. The focus is on providing students access to high-quality academic programs. Such programs foster students’ progress towards their educational goals. It also prepares them to address emergent issues confronting the region and the nation at large.
Engaging the Community
CCSIT believes in strong collaboration with its community and professional societies. To provide a culture of intellectual curiosity and entrepreneurships, students, faculty, staff, and community are the major resources of the College. CCSIT places great emphasis on recruiting, training, developing, and retaining highly qualified faculty and staff. This will result in continuous improvement across its activities, which include teaching, research, and community service. CCSIT is situated at a place in the region with a dynamic community. As such, CCSIT arranges trainings, workshops, and evening courses for the community as one of its missions. Being a part of a public university, CCSIT is funded by the national government. The university allocates adequate financial, physical, human,
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and technological resources to the CCSIT as per need. The allocated resources are enough for CCSIT’s survival; however, leveraging its strengths requires extra funding.
Proliferating Research
To foster excellence in computing disciplinary research and innovation, CCSIT is committed to investing even more resources to serve its community. CCSIT has already identified key research areas and seeks to hire additional faculty members accordingly.
Through workshops, trainings, and other activities, CCSITs plans a culture of innovation for enriching the discipline and the community. Such culture involves intra as well as inter-college research collaboration as appropriate. The MSCS program and scientific research unit have been activated to enhance the quality of research output as well as publicize college research achievements.
Maintaining Accreditation
Academic accreditation testifies to the quality education. So far, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has become the de facto for assessing computing education. At present, all eligible degree program such as Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems, and Bachelor of Science in Cyber Security and Digital Forensics have obtained ABET accreditation. In the next 5 years, accreditations of these programs are the target in addition to accrediting the newly launched program of Bachelor of Science in Artificial Intelligence.
Based on priority areas, external and internal scanning of various factors, CCSIT has identified the following strategic focuses for next 5 years which are the driving forces for our strategic plan:
1. Promote student success by ensuring excellence in teaching, learning, and student-centered support services.
2. Attain and maintain accreditation for the current academic programs.
3. Initiate unique degree programs as per the job market.
4. Encourage more community outreach and awareness programs.
5. Improve the research output at students and faculty levels.
6. Implement risk management system at the college.
7. Explore opportunities for revenue generation.
8. Enhance the college facilities and infrastructure.
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A high-level sketch of CCSIT strategic plan is given in Figure 4-1
Figure 4-1 High Level Sketch of CCSIT Strategic Plan (2021-2025)
While draft the latest CCSIT strategic plan, the following references were used for benchmarking purposes.
✓ IAU Strategic Plan (2018-2025), https://www.iau.edu.sa/en/about-us/strategic- planning-resources/the-universitys-strategic-plan-2018-2025
✓ Strategic Plan (2020-2025), The College of Architecture and Planning, IAU
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Part 5: Vision, Mission, and Strategic Goals of CCSIT
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CCSIT has recently revised the vision, mission, and goals to be aligned with IAU vision, mission, and goals. The latest vision, mission, goals, and values are given below followed by IAU strategic goals.
Vision:
“To be a leading computing college at national, regional, and global levels.”
Mission:
“Provide quality computing education, discovery, and professional services with community engagements.”
CCSIT Strategic Goals:
Goal 1: Offer quality education in the computing domain.
Goal 2: Stimulate creative intra and inter college collaborative research.
Goal 3: Facilitate the culture of community services and advocate social integration.
Goal 4: Recruit and retain high caliber faculty and talented staff.
Goal 5: Improve college infrastructure for sustainable environments.
Goal 6: Develop and implement a robust management system.
Goal 7: Strengthen financial self-sustenance and entrepreneurship culture at the college.
Goal 8: Upgrade infrastructure and computing laboratories.
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College Values:
S# Value Definition
1 Loyalty: To perform obligations towards my university and my community with all sincerity, dedication, and enthusiasm.
2 Excellence: To perform the university work with all accuracy, quality, and excellence.
3 Teamwork: To work with my colleagues as one coherent, friendly, and cooperative team to serve the university interests and achieve its goals.
4 Transparency: The practices and procedures governing university transactions should be characterized by openness, clarity and publicity.
5 Diversity: The college community should allow commendable difference that is in opinion and absorb diversity in origin, color, religion and gender and social and cultural backgrounds, etc.
6 Creativity: The college community should be able to transcend traditional ideas and rules, patterns, and relations and to create new and useful meanings, ideas, forms, methods and interpretations
7 Social
responsibility:
The college should be committed to achieve welfare and well- being of the surrounding community and to adopt a useful and harmless environmental model in all its activities.
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