Strategic plan

The organization adopted its current strategic plan (635 kb, PDF) in April 2004 after an important and substantial process of consultation and debate within the organization. It addresses the key issue facing us in the early 21st century—the planned growth of the IB itself.

The plan is subject to regular review.  Following a Council of Foundation retreat in July 2006, the 'access' (240 kb, PDF) theme of the strategic plan was developed with our latest thinking.

Why planned growth?

Growth is nothing new for the IB. Since 1968, we have grown rapidly, and for the past five years, student numbers in the three programmes have grown by nearly 20% each year. However, it is the rate and direction of this growth that presents us with our greatest challenges.

In particular, our analysis shows that planning growth is necessary to address two key questions.

1. How can we ensure that the growth of the IB benefits schools and students worldwide, not just an economic elite who can most easily afford high-quality programmes?
   
2. How can we sustain double-digit growth rates while maintaining the IB's reputation for quality and innovation?

In other words, it is the "planned" in "planned growth" that is the strategic issue for the IB.

Three major themes

These questions help to identify the three major themes of our strategic plan:

Quality:Continuously improving the quality of our three programmes

Access: Enabling more students to experience and benefit from an IB education, regardless of personal circumstances

Infrastructure: Building a highly effective and efficient infrastructure so that we can provide excellent service to students and schools

The plan sets out 28 actions that identify the major developments we will need to implement over the next five to ten years. The delivery of these themes and actions is managed through the annual process of business planning.