Simply better.
The University
strategy
2
Foreword from the
Vice-Chancellor
The University of Southampton is an exceptional place; its
people achieve remarkable things. We are a world-leading,
research-intensive university, with a strong educational
offering, renowned for our innovation and enterprise. This
is a great platform from which to sharpen our focus with
our new strategy.
I am delighted with the positive feedback I have received
from colleagues following my first all-staff address about the
new strategy. It’s clear from your feedback that having set
the direction of travel we now need to determine the detail.
This document has been created to help you understand
what lies behind each part of our strategy. Inside you’ll
find details about our four strategic principles: collegiality,
quality, internationalisation and sustainability. These
are the principles that will help us achieve an enhanced
reputation and increased rankings.
It’s a very simple strategy. It’s about our aspirations. It’s
about building our reputation. It’s about being simply
better than our competitors at what we do. I look forward
to working together to achieve our ambitions.
Professor Sir Christopher Snowden
President and Vice-Chancellor
3
Simply better
Our mission: to change the world
for the better.
Our vision
Our University community is committed to the highest
quality in everything we do.
We have a global reputation for our passion and ability to
work collaboratively in delivering world-class education,
research and innovation that makes a real impact on
society’s biggest challenges.
Our exceptional students share in these journeys of
discovery and become confident thinkers who can realise
their full potential.
Our core principles
These four underlying principles are central to the success of
our strategy and will underpin all our strategic activities.
Collegiality
One team working,
planning and delivering
together, toward our
shared vision.
4
Quality
Always striving to achieve
the highest quality in
everything we do.
Our strategy
We will strengthen our reputation, increasing our national and
international rankings to secure a position in the top 10 in the UK
and top 100 internationally.
Our ranking increases our reputation and our reputation
increases our ranking.
A reputation for delivering excellence and an exemplary
student experience will lead to greater demand from the best
student applicants, sustained support from research funders
and strong support from our alumni.
Internationalisation
Delivering across global
markets and building
strong partnerships with
other leading universities.
Sustainability
Ensuring our actions
lead to financial, social
and environmental
sustainability.
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The principles
To help us increase our reputation and ultimately our
rankings, we’ll need to align our activities with the four
principles:
-
collegiality
quality
internationalisation
sustainability
This will mean working together as one team, planning
and delivering toward our shared vision. It will also mean
striving for quality in everything we do.
We will build on our successes to deliver internationally
excellent research, a high-quality education and student
experience, and develop strong, sustainable relationships
with key partners.
These actions will help us achieve a financially, socially and
environmentally sustainable University.
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7
8
Your contribution
to our success
The following pages provide tools and information to test
how your individual activities support our University’s
direction. You can refer to these tools when making
decisions, including as part of the formal business
planning process. They could also be the basis for informal
conversations or creative brainstorms with your colleagues.
On pages 10­–11 you will find a strategy map with our
aspirations for the future. Let’s make the University a great
place to work; recruit diverse, high-quality, high-potential
students; achieve a top 10 position in national and top 100
in international league tables and increase our surplus.
The goals we are aiming for are set out on pages 12–13. These
show how your activities relate to our strategic principles.
Under collegiality, for example, it’s about providing an
excellent staff experience, improving management and
leadership, and developing agile governance.
We’ll then be keeping track of how we are doing using key
performance indicators, under eight areas (see pages
14–15). So measurement of staff satisfaction, for example,
will be through our engagement surveys.
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Strategy map
This map shows our aspirations for the future.
Collegiality
A great place to work
High-performing
and managem
Recruitment, development and retention
of our diverse, high-quality staff
Quality
National and
international
reputation
Recruitment of
diverse, high-quality,
high-potential
students
Provision of highquality education
and student
experience
Education with
discovery at its heart,
where students
become confident
thinkers who realise
their full potential
Life-long
membership of
a vibrant
international
community
p
High national and international league table
10
leadership
ment
Community built on trust and
taking personal accountability
Increase surplus
Manage costs
Development and maintenance of
high-quality infrastructure and environment
International
partnerships focusing
on reputation and
revenue
Appropriate and
intelligent bidding
and acquisition of
research funding
Efficient, effective
systems and
governance
Enhance
productivity
Increase revenue
Distinguished by
our strategic
relationships
Generation of
knowledge and
technologies that
have real economic
and social benefit for
the world
position and reputation as a quality brand
Optimise our offer
New sources
of revenue
Sustainability
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Our goals
These pages set out what we are striving for and will help to show how
your work relates to the principles of our strategy.
Collegiality
Provide an excellent staff experience
Improve management and leadership at all levels
Develop agile governance and increased risk appetite
Quality
Improve the student experience
Develop high-quality systems and infrastructure
Improve the quality of research applications
Develop five strategic partnerships each worth >£5m
Improve the quality of the students we recruit
Increase numbers of international students
Improve student employability
Recruit and retain high-quality staff
12
National and international reputation
Improve league table rankings and reputation
Improve the quality of our education
Grow a strong international alumni community
Deliver impactful research
Sustainability
Deliver the ability to invest
Develop sustainable smooth income
Improve research overhead recovery
Improve productivity
Increase revenue from ‘other’ sources (eg philanthropy)
13
Key performance
indicators
These pages set out how we will monitor progress in order to sharpen our
focus to achieve our future success.
Key performance indicators and metrics
14
1
Staff satisfaction
- Engagement surveys
2
Student satisfaction
- UK rank in National Student Survey (NSS), Overall Satisfaction
- Graduate destinations
3
Research quality
- Field-weighted citation impact
- Impact partnerships
- Value of research grants and contracts awarded
- Rolling Research Excellence Framework (REF) measures
4
Entry standards
- Average total tariff points
5
League table rankings
- Rank in: the Guardian, Complete University Guide, The Times,
Times Higher Education ‘ Table of Tables’
- QS World University Rankings
Key performance indicators and metrics
6
Financial sustainability
- Income from teaching grants, tuition fees and education
contracts per FTE*
- Income from research grants and contracts per FTE*
- Surplus as a percentage of income
- Staff costs as a percentage of income
- Research overhead recovery
7
Student numbers
- Actual versus planned enrolments
8
International impact
- Enhanced strategic partnerships
- Number and geographical diversity of international students
*Full-time equivalent members of staff
15
We are at the forefront of research
into gait biometrics that identifies and
recognises people by the way they walk.
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The next steps
Through our annual process of business planning, faculties
and professional services will be discussing how to align
their activities to our goals.
Teams will review their existing strategic priorities and
identify those that will be aligned to the new strategy. These
will become their priority areas, which will be monitored by
local performance indicators.
We will provide staff with regular updates about our
progress via the Vice-Chancellor’s video messages,
discussions with managers, information on the
Strategy SharePoint site and articles on SUSSED and in
Southampton Connects Staff.
Staff are encouraged to ask questions or comment about
the new strategy by talking to their manager, or by emailing
the Vice-Chancellor, [email protected]
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A successful
future
“We will develop graduates who are confident global
citizens, equipped to make a positive contribution to
the world. Our knowledge and technologies, developed
through our research and applied through our enterprise,
will have real economic and social benefit for the world.
People will choose Southampton because of its reputation
for quality and to play a part in changing the world. Our
staff will say it is a great place to work, where they are
encouraged to be creative and are part of a team that
achieves more together.
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We will be a university consistently ranked in the top
10 nationally and top 100 internationally. Our student
satisfaction will be among the highest in the country,
reflected in the National Student Survey (NSS). Our
graduate prospects will be among the best. Our entry
tariff will reflect our reputation as a leading university,
with completion rates and good degrees reflecting our
commitment to fully developing the potential of our
students. Our world-leading research will underpin
an excellent Research Excellence Framework (REF)
position. We will achieve all of this while improving our
sustainability and generating a surplus that allows us to
invest in our University.”
Professor Sir Christopher Snowden,
President and Vice-Chancellor
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www.southampton.ac.uk/simplybetter
[email protected]