UNCW's vision is built on the university’s deepest values. This vision reflects our hopes, dreams and expectations, but it is also designed to help UNCW face great challenges and opportunities in the years to come.
The university's strength lies in three enduring values:
A commitment to the journey of learning
A love of place and
An unshakable conviction in the power of ideas and innovation
Commitment to the Journey
UNCW has always emphasized students’ journeys to inquire and discover and, through those processes, better themselves and their communities. Our deepest and most sustaining value is our fundamental commitment to this journey. The university further strengthens these journeys through its time-honored focus on the collaboration of students and faculty in research and scholarship.
Love of Place
Our vision for the future must include a strong sense of place. To be a national and global leader in demonstrating how universities can serve their regions, we must come to understand and embrace the importance of our coastal location between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cape Fear River.
As North Carolina’s coastal university, UNCW must utilize its location to explore modern questions related to commerce, human health, nutrition, the environment and social and cultural dynamics. There is no complete understanding of human history, the human condition or literature and music and art in the absence of the sea.
The Power of Ideas and Innovation
Our faculty, staff and students are inventing the future by embracing a culture of innovation. Creating this culture will involve examining traditions, taking risks, making difficult choices and accepting and learning from failure.
The university’s innovative culture is built on UNCW’s educational philosophy, which is rooted squarely in the liberal arts and sciences. Our ideals of inquiry, comparison, critical thinking and creativity are the perfect garden of invention.
