Strategic Plan
SIA Strategic Plan, 2026-2030
Summary of Objectives
SIA has engaged in extensive program-building during the past 2-3 years (2023 to 2026). During the next five years we will build on our comparative advantage as a small professional school of international affairs with a strong sense of community and commitment to international engagement. This will include the following priorities:
- Continue to cultivate a strong sense of globally engaged community as a core element of SIA's identity and attractiveness to students.
- Revise the MIA curriculum to ensure we provide our students with the professional skills required to succeed in a rapidly changing global environment.
- Broaden the range of professional opportunities for which we prepare our students.
- Recruit students for our new programs so that these become institutionalized and overall SIA graduate enrollment grows by up to 25% from 2026 to 2030.
- Position SIA to launch its next phase of expansion, including the creation of a distinctive and innovative undergraduate program that is simultaneously intellectually challenging and professionally relevant, as well as an online master's program.
Strategic Objectives
I. Continue to Cultivate a Globally Engaged Community in SIA
SIA's core strength, and a source of comparative advantage as a small professional school of international affairs, is its sense of a shared globally engaged community in which students, faculty, and staff all take part. Reestablishing engagement and strengthening the sense of shared community in the post-pandemic environment required deliberate effort by SIA staff and faculty.
Spearheading this effort has been the International Affairs Discussion, a series of open-ended conversations about international affairs in which students are invited to exchange ideas about large-scale global challenges without any advance preparation required. The series was initiated by the (newly hired in 2023) SIA Director in fall 2023 and has met three times per semester since. Results have been positive. Students attend in good numbers. There has been a spillover effect as the norm of engagement has been evident in student participation in SIA guest lectures, panel discussions, and other activities. Additionally, the International Affairs Discussion and the strong sense of community evident to students who visit during the annual Open House for admitted students have been effective student recruitment assets.
During the next phase of its development, SIA must build on the successes of the International Affairs Discussion to sustain this shared sense of global community. How can we do so?
II. Adapt Curriculum to Shifting Global Environment and Prepare Students for Emerging Professional Opportunities
In spring 2025 the SIA Director convened an ad-hoc Curriculum Review Committee to identify the skills most critical for our students amidst dramatic changes in the international system and a changing landscape for professional opportunities. The committee presented its recommendations for revisions to the MIA program to the full SIA faculty at the start of fall 2025. Deliberations including both faculty and staff have since been ongoing.
The curriculum review process will conclude in spring 2026 with submission of a series of MIA program modifications to the Graduate School, focused on updating the program to address the demands of the emerging international system and to ensure students are equipped with a versatile and highly marketable toolkit of skills.
III. Consolidate New Programs to Sustain and Increase Enrollment
In spring 2025, SIA began accepting applicants to its new LLM-MIA program, which enables LLM students to add to their 1-year law degree an additional year with SIA in which they also obtain the Master of International Affairs degree. Interest was strong during the first offering of the program, with 12 applicants and 6 students ultimately matriculating into the MIA program. The LLM-MIA is a productive opportunity for SIA for two crucial reasons: (1) many LLMs, all of whom are international students, are interested in remaining at PSU for an additional year; and (2) at a time when it is challenging for admitted international students to ultimately matriculate, LLM students are here on campus and already socialized into PSU and into academic life in the Katz Building. Bringing these students into the MIA can enrich the SIA student cohort.
Additionally, during the 2024-25 academic year, SIA developed a new MS in Global Economic and Business Relations following a year-long program development process involving staff and faculty. The program received full approval from the Graduate School and Provost at the end of the fall 2025 semester and will begin in fall 2026.
SIA will seek to increase enrollment through recruitment for both programs as a response to an extremely challenging recruitment environment for the MIA.
SIA enrollment targets* (total student numbers)
| Year | MIA total enrollment (including IUG) | LLM/MIA | MS | SIA Total Enrollment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | 90 | 7 | 8 | 105 |
| 2027-28 | 90 | 8 | 22 | 120 |
| 2028-29 | 87 | 10 | 28 | 125 |
| 2029-30 | 87 | 10 | 33 | 130 |
* Student numbers do not include newly proposed programs described in section V.
IV. Expand Outreach to Enhance the Impact of SIA on the PSU Campus
SIA will deploy its comparative advantage in pedagogy and experiential learning to enhance its campus impact.
V. Launch the Next Phase of Program Diversification to Advance Growth
During the next 5 years, SIA will build on the addition of the LLM-MIA and the MS program in ways that strengthen its identity and further grow student numbers.