2020 Vision Statement
Following the implementation of the 2010-2015 Strategic Plan, the direction for 2015-2020
needs to be defined. This Vision is based on dialogue with the Executive, Heads of Division
and Principals followed by discussions at Board level. It was also originally sent selectively
to other partners for comment. It reflects the changing and challenging academic world in
which the University of Suffolk (should that be the chosen title) as its successor body will be
operating. It does not include specific progression timelines – as these will fall into the next
Strategic Plan – but focuses on what it is envisaged can be achieved with independence by
2020
As such, the 2020 vision builds on the vision for 2015 in the current Strategic Plan which is
that ‘UCS will be a fully functioning, cohesive, student-centred higher education institution.
Its high quality and innovative teaching and learning focused on vocationally relevant areas
will be cost effective and underpinned by selected nationally/internationally recognised
research and scholarship.’
By 2020 UCS will be more substantially developed as a higher education institution, with
degree awarding powers in first teaching and then research, and its own university title. This
will mean that UCS is no longer disadvantaged by not being an independent higher
education institution in terms of, amongst other things, student and public perception, league
tables, receiving HEFCE grants, entering the Research Excellence Framework, receiving
Research Council grants and being recognised by governments in admitting international
students.
By 2020 the University of Suffolk will be a well-founded, cohesive and self-critical academic
community with its own financially sustainable and autonomous educational infrastructure. It
will have a significantly larger student population including some fee paying students
studying predominantly through open learning in the UK or abroad built up on a carefully
phased basis. If such growth in open learning students is to occur it is likely to take place
through partnerships with one or more providers. The University will have a very high level of
applications for some niche based academic disciplines and sufficient student demand for
sustainability in all other academic areas. It will be accompanied by a strong pattern of
student retention, student satisfaction and external quality ratings – increasingly underpinned
by a culturally embedded scholarly base.
The new University will be a key player in its local communities with a growing focus on
subject areas and skills most significant in raising aspirations and achievement in Suffolk
through both vocational and professional studies. The overarching basis for the selection
would mainly focus on subjects that are applied and transformational in terms of the socioeconomic structure. We will keep under careful review our responsibility to widen access and
raise aspiration across the region.
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The focus of the University of Suffolk on continuing high rates of general employability and
increasing graduate employability would build on, support and benefit from the configuration
of world leading industries in Suffolk; from finance and communication technology to the
ports and sustainable energy suppliers, as well as the agricultural, biotechnology and SME
base through the Chamber of Commerce and other partners. The route to success would
include, amongst others, apprenticeships, germination, incubation and internships – with
curriculum areas closely aligned to economic priorities. University of Suffolk will see its role
as a driver of economic development in Suffolk as a key performance indicator.
In terms of the character of the institution, decision making in the University as a whole will
be centred on more streamlined and inclusive processes. Development of any new
academic offer or discipline will be based on clear market demand and the needs of
employers.
The Ipswich Hub campus of the University of Suffolk will be further modernised and
developed in partnership as appropriate, with a significant move from the northern campus
and a waterfront focus in line with the Estates Master Plan. Development of the physical
infrastructure at the Learning Network Centres operating inside the University will be
encouraged, including direct educational facilities and student residences where relevant.
In addition, the focus on equivalence of the student experience will be enhanced – and will
be turned from a challenge to a USP of the University of Suffolk in an inclusive Learning
Network in which an expanded number of students will be studying on a broader range of
courses. The distinctive Learning Network Centres will collegially and reciprocally come
under the oversight of a smaller number of engaged and proactive Faculties – which will
come into being as Schools develop further in scale and play a larger part in forward
developments within a clearly articulated business plan.
Subject selectivity is also intended to help bring about a commensurate move in subjects
relevant to local and regional agendas from ‘selected nationally/internationally recognised
research and scholarship’ in the 2015 vision to the development of a small number of
approved Research Institutes, Centres and Units. Such research would underpin a defined
but limited cluster of highly regarded areas by 2020 through the implementation of subject
specialisms in teaching and learning – accompanied if appropriate by recognition in the 2020
Research Excellence Framework.
The overwhelming majority of provision will be at undergraduate level, but with a measured
growth in postgraduate students if supported by market intelligence – including in
postgraduate research. This would be centred on the development of the scholarly base of
academic staff, which would, amongst other things, be enhanced – through a gradual
increase in numbers of the professoriate through new appointments and internal promotions,
with the development of clear career routes within UCS.
We should expect the University of Suffolk to have increasingly diverse income streams,
based on a wider, high quality range of collaborative academic and other partnerships. In
addition to conventional student recruitment we should expect to build on and complement
strengthening links with local and regional stakeholders, not least in relation to training,
research and consultancy facilitating the prospect of enhanced investment in the University.
The distinctive subject focuses of the University of Suffolk - responding to emerging student
and employer demand - are likely to include the following: the biosciences; business and
enterprise; children and young people; the creative industries; education; energy; health and
social care; heritage and technology.
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These subject areas (which may intersect) will contain further sub-specialisms which
highlight our expertise – including in vocational/professional areas. For example, health will
incorporate nursing, midwifery and radiography as well as other related disciplines,
depending on NHS commissioning. It will also encompass distinctive specialisms such as
healthy ageing and inter-professional working.
This vision of the development of the University of Suffolk will require the growth of more
flexible modes of delivery in a dynamically responsive learning environment with active
student participation – including a greater proportion of on-line learning and on-site delivery
for employers in both local/regional and national/international markets, in partnership as
appropriate. It will also be based on innovative and leading-edge, part-time and full-time
approaches to teaching and learning, with the supporting learning resources and ICT to
match in the Hub and across the Learning Network.
In sum, by 2020 the new University of Suffolk will have established a reputation and brand
as a twenty-first century can-do, dynamic, fleet of foot, market-centred provider with
complementary research, scholarly activity and teaching quality in focused areas. It will be
genuinely rooted in and responsive to the economic, social and cultural aspirations of the
communities it serves. By the end of the 2015-2020 Strategic Plan it should not only be
figuring systematically in national league tables, but progressively moving up these – with
growing and tangible benefits for each of its partners and a sustainable balanced budget
with appropriate surpluses.
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