This autumn, I would like personally to invite members of our staff and student body to engage in a conversation about the next steps for our University.
It is my hope that this exercise, entitled Our University, Our Future, will help us to achieve a deeper understanding of our current areas of strategic focus, and also start conversations building towards our next strategic plan, which will come into effect in 2021.
There will be further information for staff and students from mid-September when more of our community will be on campus. This will be followed in October and November by a number of opportunities to engage, both in person and online, in order to ensure that everyone has the chance to be involved.
I believe that every member of our community has a unique contribution to make, whether it is an idea to help tackle an obstacle we face, or an opportunity to develop our shared ambitions. Colleagues from all job families and both undergraduate and postgraduate students are warmly invited to take part.
Initial findings from the exercise will be considered by Heads of Department in early 2020, with a full report available before the summer of 2020. I am hoping that there will be some resulting actions which can be implemented relatively swiftly, and inevitably there will be longer term ideas which will need to feed in to our next University strategy.
Please do look out for further information about how to get involved, and I look forward to hearing from you in the coming months.
Professor Ian White Vice-Chancellor and President