University Strategy
The national and global environment in which the University operates is changing at an unprecedented rate – with increasing student expectations, the globalisation of higher education, the Brexit challenge, disruptive new technologies and increased competition for the very best talent. To thrive and succeed in the face of such change, we must regularly review our goals and actions to secure the University’s continued long-term success, but with reference to our values and heritage. Our University strategy enables us to do that.
We are a pioneering university. A place that inspires world-leading teaching, research and scholarship, a place committed to transforming lives and shaping the future. At a time of unprecedented change in higher education, and in the wider world, the University must be fully prepared to embrace technological developments and societal change, respond to the new regulatory landscape following the Higher Education and Research Bill and the Teaching Excellence Framework, substantially grow our online learning offer, and add value for all our students and other stakeholders across the range of our activities.
On 2 June 1928, as King George V and Queen Mary were set to open the Trent Building and pronounce University Park as our new home, Sir Jesse Boot wrote:
“At the moment of the opening by His Majesty the King, when the stones of the coming University are still un-weathered by time, it is difficult to appreciate the full significance of this educational development. Thousands of students as yet unborn will pass along the corridors and learn in the lecture rooms, and wrest the secrets from nature in the laboratories. Their work will link still more closely industry with science, add to the honour of our city and help to increase the wellbeing of our nation. In each succeeding age [the University] will spread the light of learning and knowledge and will bind science and industry in the unity that is so essential for the prosperity of the nation and the welfare of our fellow citizens.”
This vision still has currency. It speaks of ambition, engagement, partnership, civic responsibility and longevity and the values on which it is built remain at the heart of the University. However, while these core values remain, almost 90 years of globalisation and technological developments make the world a very different place and our vision for the future of the University needs to reflect this.
The University is in a very strong position globally having grown its student body, invested in priority areas of research and delivered international campus developments over the last two decades. Nevertheless, even as we consolidate current success, we need to further enhance our position as a world-leading University and direct resources in order to:
- strengthen and enrich our core activities of education and research;
- focus on enhancing quality;
- address the changing expectations of our students;
- target investment in beacon research areas;
- differentiate ourselves from our competitors in the delivery of outstanding student experience and internationalisation.
Our University Strategy is delivering our medium-term ambitions while laying the foundations for success post-2020. We are keeping these ambitions and goals under constant review and ensuring that we remain responsive to future challenges and competition, are dynamic and ambitious in our responses, and seek always to act in the best long-term interests of the University.
Vision
To deliver the very best teaching to our students and to transform lives around the globe through world-changing research. The University of Nottingham is an inspiring place of learning and scholarship that transforms:
- offering an outstanding, broad-based, international education to talented students;
- developing skilled, reflective global citizens and leaders;
- undertaking fundamental and transformative discovery;
- being engaged internationally to enhance industry, health and wellbeing, policy formation, culture and purposeful citizenship;
- being committed to excellence, enterprise and social responsibility;
- sustaining and improving the places and communities in which we are located.
Core principles and values
To deliver our vision we will:
- put students at the heart of the University;
- value all staff and support them to excel;
- focus on quality and excellence;
- value diversity and promote equality;
- think globally, deliver locally, and engage personally;
- take an international outlook across all our activities;
- sustain our commitment to being comprehensive, research intensive and socially responsible;
- enrich our heritage and build on the legacy of Sir Jesse Boot, to honour our public benefit obligations to current and future generations of students, alumni and staff, and the communities in which we are embedded.
Our focus for action
Achieving the vision requires us to reflect on areas of current strength and challenge and identify opportunities for further development. Our focus through to 2020 and beyond will include:
- a focus on quality in all we do;
- meeting the changing expectations of our students;
- changing the way we work with our students;
- enhancing research quality and impact;
- growing external partnerships to support teaching and learning, research, student employability;
- embedding internationalisation;
- ensuring financial sustainability.
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/global-strategy-2020/index.aspx