The Mission of WPI
WPI educates talented men and women in engineering, science, management, and humanities in preparation for careers of professional practice, civic contribution, and leadership, facilitated by active lifelong learning. This educational process is true to the founders' directive to create, to discover, and to convey knowledge at the frontiers of academic inquiry for the betterment of society. Knowledge is created and discovered in the scholarly activities of faculty and students ranging across educational methodology, professional practice, and basic research. Knowledge is conveyed through scholarly publication and instruction.
Adopted by the Board of Trustees, May 22, 1987
The Goal of WPI
WPI was founded in 1865 to create and convey the latest science and engineering knowledge in ways that would be most useful to the society from which its students came. Since that time, the disciplines of human inquiry have expanded extraordinarily, as have WPI's constituencies. The WPI curriculum, accordingly, has been reshaped numerous times, but it has remained true to its original mission of fusing academic inquiry with social needs, of blending abstraction with immediacy, of linking new knowledge to applications.
The goals of the undergraduate program are to lead students to develop an excellent grasp of fundamental concepts in their principal areas of study; to lay a foundation for life-long renewal of knowledge; to gain a mature understanding of themselves; and, most importantly, to form a deep appreciation of the interrelationships among basic knowledge, technological advance, and human need. These principles are today manifest in the WPI Plan, a unique, project-oriented program which emphasizes intensive learning experiences and direct application of knowledge. WPI remains committed to continued educational improvement and innovation.
The goals of WPI's programs of graduate instruction and research are to create and convey knowledge at the frontiers of academic inquiry. These endeavors are founded on the principle that vigorously pursued and rigorously assessed scholarship is the lifeblood of the institution. High quality graduate instruction conveys the arts of scholarship to new generations, and it assists working professionals in maintaining currency in a world where knowledge becomes obsolete with ever-increasing rapidity.
A WPI education encompasses continuous striving for excellence coupled with an examination of the contexts of learning so that knowledge is won not only for its own sake but also for the sake of the human community of which the people of WPI are part.
Endorsed by the WPI Faculty on March 5, 1987, and by the Board of Trustees on October 16, 1987.