The University Strategic Plan

The Strategic Plan is a route map for achieving BU’s vision for 2012. Based on the successes of the last two years it is evident that the planned transformation of BU is already taking place.

Working towards our vision for 2012

BU can trace its roots back 100 years to 1908 but it was the award of University title in 1992 that enabled BU to flourish as a popular and regionally relevant provider of higher education. Since then the University’s national and international profile and performance have developed enormously.

Its Strategic Plan (2007/08 to 2011/2012) was approved by the University Board in September 2007 and set out a bold framework for its success with a firm focus on:

• Improving the student experience
• Raising BU’s academic profile
• Strengthening BU’s performance in research and enterprise
• Ensuring institutional sustainability.

At the core of this Plan is the 2012 vision of BU:

Bournemouth University is a youthful and innovative international institution offering a range of high quality academic programmes geared to the professions. Our student centred learning environment emphasises both intellectual achievement and employability. We are proud of our strength in research and enterprise and the world class standing of our centres of academic excellence.

The Strategic Plan quantifies BU’s aspiration to realise this vision and achieve, by 2012, the performance of a top 40 UK university (as defined by The Times Good University Guide).

It also aims to position and prepare BU for the challenges ahead. By 2010 the UK will face a demographic downturn as the number of 18-year-olds in the country declines. Within the period of the Plan the government will announce its policies for tuition fees with the anticipation that the current cap will either be raised or lifted altogether making the UK higher education sector even more market driven. On the international stage, there are ever more providers of higher education competing for globally mobile students.

BU’s response is to compete on the basis of quality, not price, and to ensure that high standards are maintained in support of the student and staff experience.

The Strategic Plan goes on to say:

Our first task is to use targeted investment to change, through development and restructuring, the majority of our teaching staff to better-qualified and externally facing academics.

We will create, through investment of up to £50M, an academic environment that, in terms of its estate, Information and Communications Technology, Library, facilities and University processes, is capable of supporting our aspirations.

By 2012 we will play to our strengths in our reputation, our location, our employer engagement, our use of placements and our partnerships. We will have built on our achievements in global perspectives and be seen as one of the most environmentally sustainable UK universities.

Within the next five years we will create a lively intellectual environment evidenced by a vibrant academic culture, influential publication record and rising levels of doctoral completions.

Progress abounds

During the first year BU met most of the Plan’s stretching targets. These will directly facilitate future performance. Some excellent results have already been achieved and BU has:

• Increased its ranking in all four major UK league tables, secured a top half position in The Times Good University Guide and was ranked the UK's number one new University by The Guardian University Guide 2009
• Been assessed in the Research Assessment Exercise 2008 (RAE) as the fourth most improved UK university in research quality (of the ten areas assessed, eight featured research that was rated as being of world leading quality in terms of its originality, significance and rigour)
• Been awarded the highest category of confidence in the maintenance of its academic standards and the enhancement of its quality by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)
• Appointed approximately 150 academics over the last three years to positions to facilitate the transition of its staff profile from ‘teachers’ to ‘academics’ and foster the development of an academically led culture
• Doubled its Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) funding to c £800,000 per year (in 2008/09)
• Improved the success rate of its Research Council funding bids to 31% (greater than the national average of 28%) and was placed second nationally among institutions in the University Alliance
• Consolidated its corporate image through new campus signage, bus livery and its continually improving website
• Increased attendance at its undergraduate Open Days from 2,500 to over 6,000 in three years
• Introduced a new quality assurance framework and has undertaken a review of its Senate and other joint committees to encourage greater engagement and representation for key University staff
• Invested £1.5 million in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to develop several major student-facing systems including online enrolments and payments

Further information on BU’s Strategic Plan.

<< Back to contents page

>> Forward to 2008 in numbers