No institution can afford to stand still.

Even a university like Nottingham, with all its strengths, has to keep evolving to ensure it remains the kind of place where students want to study and staff want to work. That’s why we’ve been working hard over the last year to develop Global Strategy 2020.

We do lots of things very well, but there are areas where we could do better. Our staff and our students have told us this, and doing so will help us to better meet their expectations.

Much of the initial work on Global Strategy 2020 has now been completed. With input from colleagues from all over the University, we have a clear destination in mind. We know where we want the institution to be in five years’ time, in terms of teaching, research, student experience, internationalisation and all the other aspects that make the University of Nottingham distinctive.

But it’s no good having a destination without a map of how to get there.

Since summer this year, when the Strategy was approved by University Council, we’ve been creating just that – a five-year roadmap to ensure our University gets to where it needs to be.

The roadmap is made up of a range of plans to implement the Strategy across the University – from the way we handle student data to the way we reward excellent teaching, to how we nurture our best young researchers and develop more international collaborations.

2015 will see the start of the implementation process in earnest as we work to align plans in the roadmap with the plans of Schools and Professional Services.

School and department plans are beginning to reflect the agendas driven by the Strategy, and we can expect to see changes starting to filter through as a result. Some changes will relate to major projects like Project Transform, which is part of the overall Strategy. Others strands of activity will be equally important in ensuring the University remains a top choice for students and staff in the future.

In the New Year I look forward to sharing with you more details of this exciting work, via a dedicated website, printed material, at a series of open forum events and via this blog, as we start to bring Global Strategy 2020 to life.

Professor Karen Cox

Deputy Vice-Chancellor

The University of Nottingham

—

Staff can log in to access material on the Strategy 2020 website; comments can also be posted below or sent to strategy2020@nottingham.ac.uk.