Strategic Plan
Internationalisation
Our Vision
To be a globally recognised University, connected worldwide through excellence in its partnerships in education, research, industry and knowledge exchange, built collegiately by its community of inter-culturally knowledgeable students and staff.
Our Themes
The internationalisation strategy supports the University’s strategic ambitions as follows:
We Collaborate
By working with those partners world-wide who are best placed to support us and with whom we can develop long-term and mutually beneficial relationships. We learn from, and grow alongside, the international company we keep.
We Challenge
By thinking and acting globally, both at home and overseas. In our planning and execution, we evaluate and incorporate international perspectives.
We Transform
By providing life-changing global experiences and growing cultural competencies. In promoting our values we insist on respectfulness, and we strive for sustainability.
Our Aims
We will maximise the quality, impact, visibility, and international reach of our research and knowledge exchange.
We will achieve this by:
Focusing our research on issues of international significance, including the UN sustainability goals, where possible linked to our regional priorities.
We will achieve this by:
Supporting the development of global research partnerships with leading academics, institutions, and businesses aligned with our research strengths.
We will achieve this by:
Supporting the growth of international partnerships and networking through training, mentoring, fellowships, and other support initiatives.
We will build a global community of students and staff that is welcoming, supportive, and inclusive.
We will achieve this by:
Recruiting purposefully to balance our international student numbers appropriately across programmes and levels, with international student recruitment that is regionally targeted but sufficiently flexible to adapt to international trends and developments.
We will achieve this by:
Providing appropriate support for international students and staff throughout their journey: in joining us, in learning, working, and growing together and beyond.
We will achieve this by:
Building a global community of students and staff who are culturally sensitive and aware, and who support each other in developing their cultural competencies, and delivering Trans-National Education in targeted regions worldwide that offers access to our programmes through distance study, partnership delivery, or branch campus as appropriate.
We will internationalise the student and staff experience.
We will achieve this by:
Integrating international students and home students in their learning and living in order to maximise their global experience.
We will achieve this by:
Offering a curriculum that is rich with international context, and inward and outward mobility opportunities, that engender a quest for adventure, and aspiring to decolonise not only the curriculum but across all areas of internationalisation.
We will achieve this by:
Increasing and widening participation in a range of international experiences experienced at home and overseas that are diverse and inspirational, and that promote and reward cultural competencies and transferrable skills.
We will enhance the University’s reputation and standing overseas by working with the most appropriate partners.
We will achieve this by:
Identifying regional hubs as a focus for our international collaboration and relationships in order to build our brand and reputation worldwide, and locating partners that reflect the ambition of the University in long-term and mutually supportive relationships, and who can help us to achieve our goals.
We will achieve this by:
Straightforward but robust policies and procedures to form, grow, and evaluate institutional partnerships, which are appropriate to the type and scale of the partner.
We will achieve this by:
Taking a whole University view when initially forming partnerships and reviewing the portfolio of ongoing partnerships to capture synergies and to ensure quality, alongside a coordinated governance structure that facilitates both strategic planning and analysis, and operational oversight that allows for rapid and quality assured decision making.
We will apply our values of respectfulness and sustainability in all our international activities and in our interactions with those who engage with us.
We will achieve this by:
Planning and combining travel arrangements to minimise and offset greenhouse gas emissions, travelling only when essential and using appropriate modes of travel.
We will achieve this by:
Insisting on respectfulness for our values concerning equality, diversity, and inclusivity in all our international interactions and being respectful of the values of others.
We will achieve this by:
Ensuring that when we interact with values that are different to our own, we are appropriately prepared, and that personal safety and wellbeing are always paramount.
Discover More
You can download a PDF version of our Internationalisation plan.