Shaping What’s Next

Updated April 2025

Our Mission

UNC Charlotte is a leading urban research university with a significant local-to-global impact. We transform lives, communities and industries through accessible and affordable education, offering exemplary bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and professional programs. Our commitment to scholarship, innovation and service drives our contributions to the ever-evolving needs of society. Through strategic partnerships and a focus on real-world applications, we prepare our graduates to excel in their careers and lead with purpose and integrity in a rapidly changing world.

Approved by the Board of Trustees on Aug. 7, 2024, and the Board of Governors on Nov. 14, 2024.

Our Vision

To be a globally recognized, top-tier research university driving discovery and innovation, while advancing student access and economic mobility, nurturing talent and fostering excellence.

Guiding Committments

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte comprises a large and diverse community of faculty, staff, students and alumni who, together, pursue the institution’s mission and vision. To frame our actions and shape what’s next, we commit to:

  • Academic Excellence: Realizing higher education’s transformational power by providing an exemplary academic experience for all students
  • Access and Economic Mobility: Providing education that has profound social and economic value and lifelong impact for students from all backgrounds
  • Discovery, Innovation and Creativity: Engaging in inquiry to generate new knowledge, modes of expression, understanding and solutions to society’s most significant challenges
  • Community Engagement: Collaborating with local, state, national and global partners to prepare our students to be engaged and effective citizens and to promote the common good through research and service that addresses a broad range of social needs
  • Integrity and Respect: Ensuring the highest academic, professional and ethical standards and a collegial culture that invites and includes individuals from different backgrounds, and embraces different perspectives, civil discourse and free expression, where all University members are treated with respect, fairness and dignity
  • Environmental and Resource Stewardship: Pursuing solutions to optimize sustainability and resource stewardship
  • Performance and Accountability: Utilizing data to inform University policies, programs and actions, and to assess progress through relevant measures