Bath builds from strong foundations on teaching and student experience, receiving a Gold award in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2017, and with a strong pedigree in student achievement and experience, sector-leading placement provision, and excellent employability outcomes. Over the next five years, we will prioritise maintaining our strong performance in student satisfaction and employability, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, giving this international currency.

Our courses are designed to inspire students of the highest ability irrespective of background to gain understanding and skills so that they succeed in the future. We are proud to have amongst our community outstanding and expert faculty, teaching highly relevant content which reflects the most recent research advances and references the most pressing global issues.

Our placements are a strength. This provision must be nurtured and developed to maintain the ‘Bath advantage’ of employability for our graduates. We aim to enhance the educational benefit of placement provision, nationally and internationally, through closer integration with courses of study and external partners, and online education. We will seek to break down barriers for students in gaining employment, so that as many as possible can receive the richest possible learning experience both within the University and outside. Beyond placements and study exchange, we will also explore wider employability initiatives that bring real value to our students.

Despite our strengths, with fierce international competition and innovation, we must ensure we stay at the forefront of high-quality education, student experience, and employability. These actions are key to ensure that we attract the best and brightest students from a diverse range of backgrounds. We aim to be recognised as providing rigorous and relevant courses for high achieving students so that they can have the skills, ability, and confidence to become successful leaders and thrive throughout their lives. We will develop our curricula at course, subject, faculty, and University level adopting national and international best practice.

To achieve this, we are committed to developing relevant and innovative courses, incorporating new fields. We will seek to bring together disciplines to reflect the evolution of subjects, new educational needs, and market opportunities, to allow students to prepare themselves in the best possible way for the future.

With this in mind, we must focus on developing internationally leading courses at pace, with new teaching delivery options and course pathways. Recognising the global nature of education, we will seek new international partnerships for the best possible academic experience.

As a close-knit campus community, with a strong sporting tradition and many excellent facilities, including our library services, we greatly value in-person learning and the holistic experience of a campus-based degree. Our students and staff identify our location in the vibrant, beautiful city of Bath as an important factor enabling them to thrive. This combined experience enables the University to provide students with the opportunities to be well taught, well qualified, and experienced, rounded, and grounded by the time they graduate.

We are also inspired by the opportunities emerging technology brings both to enhance existing provision and the ability to reach new and diverse audiences with learning and teaching. We will build on our existing online provision and will develop sustainable online learning resources to provide quality distance learning and enrich and enhance the efficient delivery of courses, leveraging our recognised areas of expertise.

In building online courses, we will recognise and reflect both our expertise in delivering high-quality student experience, and the high value placed on learning in a community. We will seek to create new learning communities, in line with our core strategic vision, reflecting the importance of peer-to-peer learning and experience, and personal tutoring. In this way, we will encourage life-long learning and widen accessibility both internationally and nationally.

Our community prizes highly the holistic education and experience we provide, working closely with our excellent students’ union. We will continually strive to enhance facilities and infrastructure to support an excellent educational and wider student experience at Bath.

To innovate to stay at the forefront of providing a high quality, holistic education by:

• strategically developing our curricula at course, subject, faculty, and University level
• enhancing the educational benefit of placement provision
• widening accessibility both internationally and nationally
• developing sustainable online learning resources to provide quality distance learning courses, and enrich and enhance the efficient delivery of established courses in a manner that encourages life-long learning
• forging international alliances with relevant and mutually beneficial expertise
• ensuring that our support practice in terms of advice, care, and community-building for our diverse student population is at the forefront of the sector
• ensuring that personnel, facilities, and infrastructure policies and provision support fully the educational strategy