Transformation for Excellence University Strategy 2010-2020 www.uel.ac.uk
Introduction: Developing the Strategy This Strategy: has been developed through wide consultation. Hundreds of staff, students, governors and other stakeholders have attended consultation events or offered views through School and Service meetings or in writing, and their contributions have shaped and strengthened our Strategy highlights what our longer-term vision is for 2020 identifies our key strategic objectives for 2015 is a live document, which will be reviewed regularly in the light of changing circumstances while providing an enduring frame of reference against the short-term shifts in funding, policy or demand. This Strategy states what we as an institution must do at the highest strategic level and why. It does not seek to spell out details or specify implementation plans. We want this Strategy to be short, simple and accessible. The detailed SWOT analyses, targets and implementation plans will be addressed separately, so that here we can concentrate on the key features of our new Strategy. This document is the outcome of a broad and wide-ranging process of consultation. We published a Green Paper setting out a draft vision and draft objectives. We consulted many stakeholders, but especially our own staff, governors and students through our formal committee process, through Q&A sessions and open discussions, through online surveys and through email. Those views and responses have shaped this Strategy, endorsing its broad shape and underlying thrust, while refining key details and clarifying many points of presentation. 1
Vision Statement Our vision is: To be an enterprising, international university bringing transformational opportunities to individuals, communities and businesses in our region, through diversity, partnership and excellence in teaching and research. Our vision means that in 2020 1. UEL students will not only be proud of their university; they will be articulate, lifelong ambassadors for UEL, driven by that pride and their capacity to support, guide and direct future generations of graduates. 2. We will appear regularly in the top half of published league tables. We recognise the influence of the league tables on a positive external reputation and we understand the importance of our reputation to both our staff and our students. 3. We will be a university widely recognised as an institution that integrates teaching, research and innovation. We will remain unequivocally an academic institution creating opportunity through learning, discovery and enterprise, driving up achievement through commitment to the highest academic standards for assessment, dissemination and exploitation of knowledge. 4. We will be recognised internationally for the quality and impact of our research in key areas that promote our reputation and mission. 5. We will be recognised as a leading university for employability and enterprise, routinely exceeding benchmarks and providing transformational opportunities. We will do more than offer employment we will help gifted individuals build jobs and opportunities for their communities. By 2020, we will be recognised as Europe's leading university for female entrepreneurship. 6. UEL will be a diverse, innovative and globally distributed community, contributing to a wide range of relevant academic programmes, projects and enterprises on an international basis. We will take pride in our institution, our success and the journey taken. Mission Statement Our mission is to: promote academic achievement for all, particularly for those who seek to succeed against the odds deliver innovative research and teaching that is intellectually stimulating 2
promote and provide employability skills for all our students provide an outstanding student experience, integrating intellectual, social, artistic and sporting opportunities encourage our students and graduates to share their success, and promote the success of others use our national and international reputation to support social and economic regeneration in our communities in east London, the Thames Gateway and in the broader south east maximise the social as well as financial benefits of business development, employer engagement and knowledge exchange for individuals, communities and society exploit our location in one of the world s leading capital cities for the benefit of all our stakeholders worldwide. Values We adhere to a set of values that will guide what we do and provide a clear statement to those we work with of our standards and expectations. We value: our university community of staff and students and take pride in our achievements, commitment and contribution academic excellence in all that we do ambition, innovation, creativity and enterprise and will take risks where necessary equality of opportunity, diversity and inclusion partnership, to achieve excellence and to help others achieve excellence sustainability, and will promote and help secure a socially just, healthy, prosperous and environmentally responsible world. These values will guide how we make our decisions, and how our staff, students and stakeholders work with each other. 3
Our Strategic Objectives for 2015 In order to achieve our vision of where we want to be in 2020, we need to be clear about where we must be by 2015. The following nine high-level objectives lay out the key strategic priorities for the next five years. Our objectives will be achieved primarily through the hard work and inspiration of the staff in our Schools and Services. We have a well-established planning process for Schools and Services and well-established supporting strategies, such as our HR Strategy. However, our planning process will adapt to support delivery of our nine strategic objectives over the coming year and we will develop new supporting strategies and review existing ones. Our nine objectives are: A strong academic core: internationally excellent research, robust standards, a dynamic portfolio Our academic core around research, academic standards and our portfolio is what underpins our institutional status as a university. The enhancement of our research capacity and quality will also differentiate our offer from those of our public and private regional and international competitors. A strong academic core will help attract ambitious students and staff, establish distinct and unique contributions to partnerships and foster a strong ethos of intellectual and professional excellence in all that we do. In this context, we will significantly strengthen our academic core through the promotion of research, a stronger postgraduate portfolio and greater links between research and teaching. We will invest in the academic core to strengthen our academic credentials and reputation but all investments will be tightly linked to clearly specified outcomes. To achieve this objective we will: 4 strengthen our academic teaching through curricular and pedagogical innovation and extension of good practice foster academic excellence through research-informed teaching develop a clear Research Excellence Framework (REF) Plan establish a new Research Investment Fund incorporating a new, institution-wide, sabbatical scheme treble our external research grant capture by 2015 establish five internationally outstanding, interdisciplinary research groups by 2015, producing world-leading research outputs protect and develop our robust academic standards through audit and professional body feedback review and re-launch our master s portfolio
commission medium-term Portfolio Development Plans from all Schools with a focus on interdisciplinary developments across the university in key areas such as, but not limited to: o creative media & design, fashion and performing arts o our NHS portfolio and CPD health offer o science, technology, engineering and mathematics. An outstanding student experience: distinctive, challenging, lifelong We believe that a university is more than just a learning provider, more than just a service to those who can pay for skills. We believe that a university can offer a rounded experience for all those who wish to develop their understanding of the world and their growing capacity to change it for the better. We believe a university can provide intellectual challenge in a supportive environment where knowledge and empathy can develop side by side, and that such experiences can shape how we engage with the world and those around us. We believe UEL can do these things particularly well. We will seek to transform the student experience at UEL such that it will foster a personal commitment to learning to the broader student community and to the university that will be lifelong in nature in all of our students. In addition, we aspire to produce students who will want to tell the people who matter to them, and to the university, about that experience. We will seek to ensure that our curricula and the learning experiences across all our Schools and Services will be genuinely inclusive. At the heart of this will be the student learning experience, which will be characterised by outstanding teaching, inspiring learning environments, access to learning resources and technology, opportunities for independent learning, technical mastery and professional recognition that will bear comparison with the best in the sector. At the core of this model will be enhanced tutor learner contact. While the academic learning experience will always be at the heart of what we do, we will seek to provide an environment for personal development that supports, challenges and enhances the individual in the broadest sense. In this context, we will promote student engagement in sport, the arts, volunteering, the environment and community regeneration and support this work through credit in the curriculum. In addition, we will make our campuses an integral part of this transformation of the student experience, using them as a showcase for student achievement and venues for celebration. We will ensure that our campuses are an identifiably academic environment with innovative provision for digital mobile learning and spaces for both collaborative and reflective study. In all of this we will ensure that our campuses are safe for all of the university community. 5
We shall seek to develop excellence through diversity within a university culture that promotes reciprocal engagement and respect. We will also develop a new integrated Student Experience Plan to ensure a coherent framework for investment and delivery that will focus on: intense, engaging and varied learning experiences for all our students so that we are one of the top ten London institutions for student satisfaction, as measured by the National Student Survey outstanding teaching and learning environments excellent access to innovative learning resources and technology extensive opportunities for independent learning increased and sustainable tutor learner contact the promotion of student engagement in sport, the arts, volunteering, the environment, community development and regeneration. Sustainable student recruitment: growth and opportunity Pressures on public financial support for Higher Education are likely to restrict growth in UK and EU undergraduate (UG) full-time provision for at least the next five years. Although we will raise entry tariffs in line with demand, we will continue to honour our commitment to supporting access by working with schools and colleges locally to raise aspiration and achievement. Additionally, we will continue to create opportunities for access for adult learners and those with nontraditional qualifications. In order to create capacity to continue our access and partnership work, we will increase our recruitment in areas where there are fewer public funding constraints particularly in the postgraduate (PG) arena. In addition, we will increase our UG part-time and PG continuing professional development (CPD) programmes. In all of these areas we will seek to be at the forefront of removing barriers to progression to further study for first-generation undergraduates, supporting access to employment and postgraduate qualifications. In this way, and others, we will facilitate greater UEL student competitiveness in employment markets and subsequently through CPD for promotion and career enrichment. In developing a more flexible offer for a more distributed, more mobile and more time-conscious market, we will enhance our distance learning capacity, partnerships and support mechanisms. In particular, we will seek to double our recruitment of new distance learning students by the end of the decade and establish a clear position as the leading distance learning provider in the UK after the Open University. To achieve this objective, we will develop a new Student Recruitment Plan to ensure a coherent framework for investment and delivery that will focus on the following by 2015: 6
developing a clear plan for increasing postgraduate recruitment in the context of the master s provision review by the end of 2010 targeting overseas, PG and other unregulated markets: increasing our overseas intake by at least 30% by 2015 increasing our postgraduate intake by 50% by 2015 increasing our distance learning intake by 30% by 2015. Exceptional employability and enterprise It is an established part of our tradition that we create opportunities for individuals to gain economic strength, often against the odds, through boosting their skills, knowledge and intellectual capacity for employment. We will modernise that commitment in the context of changes in career patterns and the globalisation of the employment market. This means developing a set of aptitudes and skills around practical innovation, resilience, risk literacy and independence of mind, and aspirational economic endeavour in a word, entrepreneurship for all our students so that, whatever their future career path, they can create success for themselves. We want to build on our existing strengths both by extending entrepreneurship support to all our students, and by identifying a flagship project which will make our success more visible externally. We will therefore work closely with our alumni, current and prospective students and honorary graduates such that we will build a reputation for the development of entrepreneurial skills in all our graduates. We are already experienced deliverers of entrepreneurship and enterprise support through the Petchey Centre for Entrepreneurship and our Knowledge Dock. We want UEL to be recognised throughout Europe for its distinctive approach to entrepreneurship that is both gender and culturally sensitive and specifically, by the end of the decade, we will be Europe's leading university for female entrepreneurship. To achieve this objective we will develop a new Employability and Enterprise Plan to ensure a coherent framework for investment and delivery that will focus on: an integrated approach to employability and enterprise for all a road map to achieving the ambition of being Europe's leading university for female entrepreneurship a new model for institution-wide delivery of employability and enterprise skills high-quality, blue-chip employment for our best graduates prioritisation by all Schools and Services on employability and enterprise across all students, built on a shared framework. 7
A global reach: diversification, visibility, partnership Over the last five years we have achieved one of the fastest rates of growth in terms of incoming international recruitment. More than 20% of our overall income is attributable to overseas students. This has decreased our dependence on Government funding and increased the diversity of our student body. However, we cannot assume that the patterns of international demand will remain as they have been. In addition, many institutions with relatively low levels of overseas recruitment are now redoubling their efforts to increase their market share. Further, some regional UK universities are opening campuses in London explicitly to capture overseas students while international universities are beginning to extend their reach to London and the UK. Our international students make an immense contribution to east London through the diversity they bring to our campuses and the different views and cultures they introduce to our local students. With its rich diversity of communities, east London is the hub of a global network to which we contribute and which we help to strengthen. Our current plans already anticipate diversifying into new markets and refreshing our engagements with established ones. However, we must now seek to establish a stronger and more expansive global reach for UEL. By this, we mean a measured approach to increasing our facilities overseas in selected regional hubs. While these regional hubs, even in cases where the facilities are modest, will still support our incoming international recruitment, their strategic value will be in relation to a wide range of academic, development and promotional activities such as, but not limited to: the options they give us in terms of delivery of selected PG, UG, CPD and pre-entry programmes providing a venue for alumni engagement including supporting and mentoring current UEL students a hub for support for student field trips, exchanges and placements the visibility they will give to the UEL brand providing a physical focus and venue for UEL research seminars, workshops and, potentially, postgraduate research (PGR) supervisory sessions. By working collaboratively with international partners we create opportunities to internationalise our values: academic excellence, enterprise, equality and sustainability. In some cases, where larger facilities are involved, these will serve as 'micro-campuses' bringing all these activities together in one location. We do not intend to invest significant amounts of capital in these ventures, but will explore a range of collaborative models in partnership with established and new high-quality providers. In particular, we will seek to develop a small number of transnational educational facilities in strategically significant markets. 8
We will also develop a new UEL Global Plan to ensure a coherent framework for investment and delivery that will focus on: increasing our incoming overseas student intake by 30% the establishment of at least five regional hubs developed to the level of micro-campuses the establishment of at least two significant transnational educational facilities a clear model for blending distance learning into our global activities. Best in London for sport: participation, excellence, inclusion. The 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics is a huge opportunity for the university and the communities we serve. The event, and the associated legacy, have the potential to make a historic contribution to the regeneration ambitions of east London. The Strategic Regeneration Framework of the five Olympic boroughs highlights how the legacy can deliver a transformation in access to health, education, transport, housing and jobs for the residents of east London to such an extent that it can raise opportunities to a level comparable to the average of those of London overall within 20 years. UEL will play a full part in bringing that vision to reality. In addition, we will seek to make a distinctive and sustainable contribution to legacy exploitation of Olympic facilities after 2012. This will provide a unique learning and participation environment for our students in many disciplines. Confirmation that the United States Olympic Committee will be using our campuses during the Games provides an opportunity to enhance our highquality reputation and expand our networks beyond the Games themselves. For UEL, sport has a broad and inclusive scope relating to: participation in leisure and recreation; physical activity; health and wellbeing; competitive and highperformance sport including training; learning about any aspect of sport; student recruitment, including schools and colleges liaison; research into any aspect of sport; provision of consultancy; sport and media; any aspect of the business of sport including law; sport and entrepreneurship; sport and sustainability; sport and equalities; scientific dimensions of sport; and sport in cultural life. Our overall approach to sport will involve the co-ordinated development of a range of interconnected elements building directly on the existing Sports Strategy. It will be essential that we have a joined up approach that drives forward in parallel all the critical dimensions of facilities development, growing student sports clubs, community participation, performance and excellence, supporting elite athletes, inclusion, event hosting, course and research development, school and college partnerships, coaching, volunteering and branding. This will directly benefit staff and students in terms of health, well-being and personal development. We also want to ensure that our institutional values are brought to bear in our approach to sport. This means valuing excellence, but also equality of opportunity, diversity and inclusion. In order to bring these features together we will continue to organise our work around four key areas: 9
sports development sports support and consultancy academic programmes research and knowledge exchange. To achieve this objective we will develop a revised Plan for Sport to ensure a coherent framework for investment and delivery that will focus on: a clear plan to achieve the target of becoming London's leading university for sport by 2015 the implementation of the existing objectives in the context of the new ambition enhancing student experience by building access to the wider east London sporting infrastructure offering a range of scholarships for elite athletes. Outstanding support for businesses: economic regeneration, social change and environmental sustainability We will maximise the social as well as financial benefits of business development, employer engagement and knowledge exchange for individuals, communities and society. We will promote transparency, social responsibility, environmental sustainability, partnerships, philanthropy and ethics in commerce. We will give a particular emphasis to small businesses and we will broker transformational engagements across economic and corporate divides. In this context, we will develop a new Business Engagement Plan that will build on our existing strengths in Knowledge Dock and the Royal Docks Business School. We will work in close partnership with local authorities to facilitate an economic transformation of east London that will offer widespread benefits. In particular, we will play a full part, alongside Newham Council, the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC) and the Mayor s Office, in the regeneration of Stratford and Docklands. We will review our approach to the exploitation of intellectual property and work closely with key organisations to create, protect and exploit our intellectual and scientific discoveries. We will further strengthen our capacity to develop and exploit our work in bioscience, biotechnology, technology for sustainability and related areas. In line with our commitment to secure the fullest social benefits of economic activity, we will also seek to embody best practice in relation to environmental responsibility and sustainability through: 10
a clear Environmental Management System (EMS) continued membership of the Carbon Trust s Higher Education Carbon Management Programme and the Mayor of London s Green 500 programme gaining Fairtrade accreditation and promoting ethical trade. An outstanding workforce: professionalism, careers, flexibility UEL has exceptional staff at all levels. We will build on this strength and make sure that all staff have the opportunity to play a full role in our future. We will promote, support and expect professionalism in all that we do. We will build up clear career paths for all staff that reward achievement and capability. We have long recognised that the profile of our staff particularly our most senior academic staff and managers does not match the UEL community as a whole. We will therefore continue to work actively to promote the development of women and black & minority ethnic staff in both academic and support roles. We will create level playing fields for all staff and champion equal opportunities across all that we do. Over the period of this Strategy, when core, full-time undergraduate numbers are likely to remain restricted, there is a greater need than ever for us to deliver our programmes at times and in places which suit the learner. Both teaching and support need to be flexible so that students can access them appropriately. We will need to develop working practices that reflect the need for greater flexibility, yet we remain committed to supporting all transitions with appropriate consultation, planning, training and mentorship: we will ensure that by 2015 we have a sector-leading approach to recruiting, retaining and developing staff we will set ourselves high standards in all these areas and develop our systems of recognition and performance management we will build on our existing strengths in staff development and resist the temptation to let financial constraints compromise our training and professional development plans we will give particular focus to growing our own talent, succession planning and recognition of success. A positive reputation: stakeholder confidence, institutional pride We will establish a strong, positive, coherent identity across all that we do. Because we are a rapidly developing organisation, operating across complex, evolving enterprises, markets and operations, and because we will achieve much of what we know to be important through partnership, we need to ensure that any association with UEL is a positive, consistent and enduring association, and understood as such by decision makers. This is also important since we seek to develop individuals, communities and enterprises that have historically been denied full voice and recognition in our society. In this context, we will develop a 11
strong, robust and credible reputation that is reflected in all that we do and all that we decide not to do. Although our contribution is broad and to multiple and diverse stakeholders, our identity will not have one dimension, but will be organised around a clear core of quality, innovation, flexibility and delivery. We will not seek reputation for its own sake, but because of what it helps us do for our constituencies. We have the most diverse student body in the UK and probably in Europe, in terms of both domestic and international student communities. This is a source of pride: it allows us to make a contribution to widening participation which is almost without parallel in the UK and it gives us a student community with a broad world view and a range of experiences to share. In several respects, the dynamic focus of London is moving east as developments like Canary Wharf, the 2012 Games and improved transport links take effect. We can make a unique contribution to this process as an institution with long-established roots and a commitment to the people of east London. To achieve this objective, we will develop a new Stakeholder Plan to ensure a coherent framework for investment and delivery that will focus on: a clear brand for UEL in the context of our new ambitions a promotions, communication and relationship management plan addressing internal and external audiences through all appropriate media including global social networks ensuring that our successes are celebrated and shared establishing UEL as the number-one gateway partner for all inward engagement from overseas universities and companies linking to east London. 12
Next Steps This is a strategy. It sets out what we must do as an institution and why. We want it to be short, simple and accessible: it does not seek to spell out details or specify implementation plans. Implementation planning is our next step. We have a well-established planning process for Schools and Services, and wellestablished supporting strategies, such as our HR Strategy. However, our planning process will adapt to support delivery of our nine strategic objectives and we will develop new and review existing supporting strategies. We have already: agreed Key Performance Indicators for our Schools which are explicitly linked to our new Strategy put in place a new structure of senior-level roles to give leadership to each area of the Strategy reviewed our annual planning processes for Schools and Services, and developed options for change identified key issues for our Services arising from the new Strategy. We will now: review our processes for strategic management for setting targets, monitoring progress and reporting success to ensure that they are fit for purpose in light of our new Strategy set out detailed action plans for each of our nine high-level objectives over the period to 2015 launch our annual Schools and Services planning round at our Corporate Planning Conference in October 2010. This will be the process by which each of our Schools and Services plans for its part in the Strategy review each of our current supporting strategies such as the HR Strategy to ensure that it is aligned with our overall Strategy and action plans. This Strategy and the detailed action plans for our nine high-level objectives will form the Corporate Plan. We will put in place a process for annual reporting of the key highlights to staff, students and other stakeholders alongside our formal annual reporting to our Board of Governors and HEFCE. In this way we will ensure that our staff and students continue to remain engaged with our Strategy as we progress towards 2020. 13
Docklands Campus University Way London, E16 2RD Stratford Campus Water Lane London, E15 4LZ 2010 University of East London