Our Mission
The University of Wisconsin–Stout prepares students for careers through applied learning and research, professional experiences, and collaborative partnerships to benefit a global society. As Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, we fulfill our mission through a curriculum that combines interdisciplinary knowledge and discipline-specific technical skills with critical thinking, creative problem-solving, communication, and social and ethical reasoning skills to better the human condition. We offer career-focused undergraduate and graduate programs for diverse students, in a variety of in-person, hybrid, and virtual modalities, organized around career clusters that include:
- Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
- Art & Design
- Business & Management
- Education
- Social & Behavioral Sciences
- Information Technology & Communications
- Health Sciences & Human Services
Our Vision
University of Wisconsin-Stout prepares lifelong learners, ethical leaders and responsible citizens in an equitable, inclusive, and sustainable environment through collaborative career-focused programs that integrate applied learning, theory and research. We will advance our position as a future-focused polytechnic institution and as a regional, national and international leader in higher education in a diverse society.
Our Values
Honor: The nobility of spirit, a diversity of people, respect and inclusion for all.
Industry: The pursuit of innovation, technology and sustainability with a constant eye to an equitable future.
Learning: The advancement of academic excellence and commitment to inclusive, accessible education as a means to illuminate the lives of all.
Skill: The ideals of collaboration, competence and continuous improvement.
Our Polytechnic Tenets
Applied Learning & Research
Learn by doing as early as your freshman year in our interactive learning environments. We have 3 times as many labs and studios as traditional classrooms on campus! Get your hands on experiential learning opportunities like undergraduate research and paid co-ops where you can earn while you learn.
Business & Industry Collaboration
Connect with the leaders in your field who are making a difference in and outside the classroom. UW-Stout is a recognized leader in creating partnerships with businesses and non-profit organizations who infuse their expertise into each of our programs. As a Stout student, you'll collaborate with our partners and award-winning faculty to solve real-world problems.
Career-Focused Experiences
Choose from distinctive majors within six career clusters to explore what you're passionate about. Network at our career fairs—some of the largest in the Midwest—or with the 1,500 employers nationwide who actively recruit Stout students. 99% of our grads are employed within six months of graduation.
Core Competencies
UW-Stout’s core competencies reflect our polytechnic tenets and commitment to the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework. The Baldrige core values of management by fact, valuing people, and focus on the future, provide the foundation for each of our competencies. Our institutional structure ensures that these competencies are embedded in our practices and align and integrate across the institution. To achieve these core competencies, we will continue to address barriers that limit access to equitable, diverse, and inclusive environments.
Career-Focused Education
UW-Stout’s uniquely successful career-focused program array features undergraduate and graduate majors, minors, and certifications that are continually updated, based on input from our advisory partners, to align with evolving professional career paths.
Applied Learning
We prepare students to apply theory to practice through experiential opportunities, reflecting our lab-based minds-on hands-on approach to education, in virtual, hybrid and campus-based environments.
External Partnerships
UW-Stout’s collaborative partnerships with external experts, businesses, and organizations are key to fulfilling our mission of preparing students for careers through applied learning experiences.
Collaborative Planning
UW-Stout’s commitment to shared governance, internal and external partnerships, inclusive excellence, and continuous improvement are at the core of our strategic planning and decision-making processes.