We will grow...
We will grow sustainably, at a scale and pace commensurate with our character and our opportunities, and sufficient to enable financial sustainability, in Bath and beyond
We will prioritise financial sustainability, generating the capacity to invest within our strategic aims
We will work ethically and inclusively, towards the highest external standards of corporate behaviour.
We will be engaged
We will be engaged in learning internationally in ways that add value to our offer and esteem to our institution.
Our success is contingent on making good choices about our size and academic offer. It is facilitated by our partnerships and engagement, for shared benefit or financial return, beyond the university.
In 2030 we will be teaching a wider range of qualifications, alone and in partnerships with businesses and educational providers. We'll be teaching students from a wider range of backgrounds, and from a wider geographic reach, to a common standard of excellence and ambition.
Our work is enabled by our commitment to our physical and digital estates, in which we will invest.
We will innovatively harness technology, data and digital opportunities to support our aims.
Our digital footprint will be robust, dependable and well used. Our approach to data will reflect our values, developing understanding and efficiencies, but always reflecting our focus on the individual, their rights and needs.
We will cherish and develop our estate and use it sustainably and to the full.
We will value our employees as the key requisite for our success and ensure that our processes and policies are clear and enabling.
We will develop a structure, systems and processes that enable us to meet our wider goals.
Our size
We will grow internally and through educational partnerships, to allow us to be more robust in the face of long-term uncertainty about higher education funding and regulation, whilst holding that growth to a rate and scale that ensures that our community and relations with partners remains robust and interconnected and facilitates the excellent teaching, learning and support at the heart of what we do.
By 2030 we'll have a student body of around 9300 students, up from around 8000 in 2020. Most of this growth will be accomplished in the second half of the decade, as our consolidated and unique approach becomes well known. We'll have a similar number of students studying in BSUL and with educational partners.
We anticipate ending the decade as a more selective institution, as applications exceed places, but we'll ensure that this selectivity is sensitive to all forms of student talent.
Our portfolio
Our academic portfolio will have strong appeal to applicants and employers. It will have a strong and proud interdisciplinary and cross- disciplinary component. It will be generated through engagement with students, applicants and employers.
It will be skills-focussed and will engage with a creative, research-informed culture. It will be radical in embracing emerging ways of learning and assessing learning. It'll focus on student wellbeing and challenge students to the highest levels of learning and making.
In 2030 we will be teaching across a broader range of educational levels than at present.
We'll be teaching a wider range of qualifications, and with a wide partnership of businesses and other education providers.
We'll be engaged in learning internationally in ways that add value to our offer and esteem to our institution.
Our financial approach
We'll husband our resources and allocate them carefully, recognising that most of our income derives from students and should be used in their support and in the enhancement of their learning experience.
At the same time, we'll look to expand our income generation through educational partnerships, research, the commercialisation of our creative activities, entrepreneurship and a bolder use of our estate.
We'll be open and transparent in our financial planning.
We will ensure that we invest in a workforce of the right size and shape to meet our ambitions, and in developments to our physical and digital estate where necessary.
We will work to support the financial wellbeing of our staff through addressing issues around pensions and pay, in partnership with the sector and using best practice from wherever we find it.
We'll work to develop financial support for our students at all stages of their learning journey, through scholarships and work opportunities.
Wherever possible, we'll employ our own staff rather than using contract staff, and we will employ our own students to work with us across a variety of roles in the University and on contract for creative and design work.
Our physical and digital estate
We will recognise and cherish the unique spaces in which we learn and work.
We will maintain and develop them sustainably and in support of our students and our staff: the work they do and their wellbeing will drive our decisions around investment and use of space.
We will also explore the opportunities of our estate for income generation and in support of a wider engagement with our community. Our buildings will be appropriate to our World Heritage context.
We'll recognise that almost all of our work will take place in a blended manner, partly face-to-face and partly using digital and technological capabilities.
Our digital footprint will be robust, dependable and well- used.
Our use of data will reflect our values, developing efficiencies; but always reflecting our focus on the individual, their rights and needs.