The Foresight Group

Shortly after the new strategic plan was published in January 2020, COVID-19 forced the University into lockdown. The global pandemic has challenged us all in so many ways, with many unforeseen, immediate events demanding changes to our short term priorities during 2020 and 2021. The Foresight Group was established in early 2020 to look beyond the immediate, and assess the long term implications of the pandemic for the higher education sector, and the University, and signal potential changes to the strategic plan, for consideration.

The Group, Chaired by Luke Georghiou, Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, was able to draw upon a range of resources including surveys of staff and students, desk-based research into sector opinion, workshops that offered a deep dive into specific topics and wider networking with stakeholders external to the University  The key topics investigated by the group were size and shape, the future of teaching/ student experience, the future of research, reimagining the way we work, the regional innovation agenda and levelling up, redefining the international university and the future role of the campus.

The links below will take you to key materials produced by the Foresight Group:

• Introductory Video from Luke Georghiou, Chair of the Foresight Group
• Summary of Participants
• Internal Colleague Survey
• Student Feedback
• Video of Key Findings from the Workstream Leaders
• Summary Report