Delivering on our strategic plan – how are we doing?

14 Jul 2022

Find out how we are progressing in delivering Our future

It has been over two years since we launched our strategic plan, Our future. Those two years have been dominated by the pandemic, but even in tackling the challenges it has brought we have been able to focus on delivering on our ambitions.

At the recent Board of Governors strategy day it was agreed that the objectives and ambitions in the current strategic plan remain relevant, and whilst there was likely to be need for flexibility and agility, there was no requirement for a fundamental shift in the direction of the strategy.

We have now refreshed and published the plans for each of the strategic themes. These are the roadmaps to delivering Our future. They build from the ideas generated through the widespread consultation when we designed the strategic plan. As we head towards the end of the academic year it is a good time to take stock of what we have already achieved and look at the areas of focus for the next year.

How are we doing?

In the last two years we have made good progress delivering our strategy, with significant achievements and we have a clear focus for the coming year. Below is an outline of some of these achievements, but many more could have been included.

Focussing on our people, our staff and our students, we have set up a new directorate for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and are developing an institutional EDI strategy to push forward our work in this area. We have also seen a step change in our communications and our partnership working with our students.

Our REF results confirmed us as a research powerhouse, and we are bringing together interdisciplinary research for the benefit of our communities, for example through the launch of Sustainable Futures and the GM Policy Hub.

In Teaching and Learning, we have provided significant financial, academic and wellbeing support to our students and invested in our own teaching excellence. Our NSS results remained the same as last year which is disappointing. While some areas showed improvement, this must be a key future priority.

We continue to focus on social responsibility, civic engagement and global influence. We have again been recognised for our contribution to the sustainable development goals and we have further developed local civic partnerships. We continue to be a truly international community with staff and students from around 160 countries. We also launched the three-way Manchester Melbourne Toronto Global Alliance to strengthen existing trilateral collaborations.

In innovation, we have formed the joint venture which will bring to fruition our new innovation district, ID Manchester, following the move from the north campus to our state-of-the–art new Engineering Campus.

Delivering our strategy together

Over the next week we will look at a snapshot of what we’ve achieved and what is to come from across each of the seven themes of Our future. Today our spotlight is on Research and Discovery.