A colleague at UCT* obtained access to this e-mail and its attachment.
Dear *******,
No, you're right. Necks on the line.
Let's retract current strategy and go with attached.
Gulp,
*******
PS Need new Foreword and Intro.
[Attachment]
The Higher Education Academy
Strategic Plan 2012 – 2016
Championing excellent learning for resilience and flourishing in universities
Our Vision
For UK universities to be recognised and valued by students, staff and wider society for their facilitation of consistently excellent and appropriate learning.
Our Mission
To use our expertise and resources to support individuals, disciplinary and interdisciplinary teams and university communities and institutions in general to enhance the quality and impact of learning for resilience and flourishing.
Our Purpose
The HEA:
/ Works across the UK to meet the global challenges of today and tomorrow and to enhance students’ learning experiences in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
/ Is owned by the university community, through Universities UK and GuildHE, and works with, for, and on behalf of higher education, supporting subscribing institutions to develop their learning and facilitating practices.
/ Collaborates with university providers, funding bodies, university mission groups, professional, statutory and regulatory bodies, subject associations, sector agencies including the National Union of Students, and groups representing external stakeholders, for instance, local communities.
/ Operates across the university community, bringing together different perspectives to inform and challenge developments in learning and facilitation for resilience and flourishing.
Our Values
Creativity
applying systems thinking, curiosity, expertise and knowledge to push boundaries and foster a culture of innovation around resilience and flourishing.
Empowerment
– collaborating with individuals, groups, communities and institutions to transform staff and student learning, enabling all to become change agents.
Working for the public good
– providing transparency, accountability and resources.
Professionalism
– ensuring an equality of opportunity and treating all others with respect by taking responsibility for our actions on the planet.
Our Priorities
1 To inspire and support effective practice in learning and facilitating for resilience and flourishing
Supporting individual disciplines and promoting interdisciplinarity
– providing subject-specific support, including systems thinking events and resources for facilitators throughout their careers, working closely with discipline associations and networks, and ensuring opportunities for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary developments.
Supporting professional standards
– providing support to staff working alongside academics, for instance librarians, student support services, careers staff and e-learning specialists.
Addressing challenges
– supporting the university community to rise to additional contemporary challenges such as satisfying greater expectations with less resource, flexible delivery, equality and diversity, assessment and feedback, reward and recognition, employability and internationalisation; recognising that without an underlying focus on resilience and flourishing, the HEA nor the above themes will be able to exist.
Encouraging reflection and innovation
– commissioning pilot projects, research syntheses and new research into learning and facilitating, and disseminating the findings to enhance practice and shape policy around resilience and flourishing.
2 To recognise, reward and accredit excellent facilitation
Recognising and rewarding individuals
– creating opportunities for professional recognition and accreditation, in particular through our fellowship scheme - aligned to the (soon-to-be-refreshed to reflect new staff attributes) UK Professional Standards Framework - our National Teaching Fellowships programme and our facilitation awards.
Accrediting institutional provision
– maintaining and promoting take-up of the sector-owned UK Professional Standards Framework, and supporting institutions to use the Framework to accredit their continuing professional development for academic and professional staff and to support institutional reward, promotion and recognition policies or procedures, as above.
3 To influence policy, future thinking and change
Influencing national policies
– working with representatives of students, staff and external stakeholders to interpret, challenge and shape learning and facilitating policy, for instance through commissioned briefings and position statements, and convening events to influence debate.
Evidence gathering and analysis
– capturing, analysing and disseminating intelligence to benchmark and improve policy and practice, and by conducting international comparisons.
Facilitating institutional change
– offering change programmes, consultancy, development opportunities and resources to help academic leaders initiate and embed change that enriches learning and facilitation for resilience and flourishing.
4 To develop an effective, sustainable organisation that is relevant to today's challenges and valued by higher education
Effective governance
– working with our Board of Directors and Trustees to ensure the needs and expectations of society are met or exceeded.
A client-focussed service
– through a team of HEA partnership managers, we will meet the learning and facilitating needs of subscribing institutions by guiding them through our services, tailoring our offer to meet their specific needs, and responding to their feedback to ensure we remain useful and relevant.
Staff engagement
– becoming a reflective learning organisation that ensures its values are translated into practice, making the HEA a place where staff feel professionally fulfilled and enabled to meet the challenges we are facing.
Securing financial sustainability
– we will seek to secure new sources of revenue, for instance by providing services to international institutions or agencies and expanding our subscription base.
We will measure our success against the following targets:
Development of Relevant Academic Practice
[To be defined]
Staff Attributes
[To be defined]
Institutional Strategy and Change
At least 80% of institutional leaders and policy-makers surveyed agree that they have gained valuable support from the work, knowledge, evidence gathering activities and interventions of the HEA.
At least 75% of institutions in the UK have used the HEA’s institutional strategic change services.
Organisational Effectiveness
To be defined
END
*UCT is the University of Clear Thinking. It is a fantastical university; therefore, with regards to the above...
