The objective of the new strategy is creating a future in which, as a broad university, we play a crucial role in excellence in education and research, with a focus on a few core areas, and we make a major contribution to strengthening welfare and prosperity in our region. A future in which students keep coming to us to grow and thrive within our close-knit community on a vibrant campus, where researchers are empowered to conduct collaborative, impactful research from their expertise, and our organisation functions efficiently and effectively. Read more about the strategic narrative here (only available in Dutch).
From strategy to plans
With this new strategy, we set our course for the next six years. The five ambitions form the starting point for concrete plans: how will we realise these ambitions? At the time of writing, colleagues in work groups are identifying which projects and initiatives contribute to our ambitions. In many cases, these are projects that are already in progress, but are not yet or not fully connected to each other and to our ambitions. This means that we will not necessarily be doing more straight away, but rather we will be taking a critical look at what we do, how we do it, and how what we do contributes to fulfilling our ambitions. We will therefore be mapping:
- What we want to achieve, and how to measure whether we are successful in doing so
- What steps are needed for this, and when we can take them
- What and who we need to achieve this
The answers to these questions will help us to prioritise: Which initiatives are prioritised? Which can be merged or redesigned? And which should be pushed forward or even suspended? This approach allows clear choices to be made, and the fact that we need to make such choices is more topical than ever.
Strong foundation
We all know that we are facing a changing world and a substantial savings target. This is the reality and it calls for choices: this savings target is not an end in itself, it ensures that we remain financially sound, now and in the future. And that we create space to invest in the ambitions we have. As such, the savings target is inextricably linked to the new strategy and the two reinforce one another.
One coherent narrative
The result of this process will be a clear positioning and a direction for the coming years. With concrete goals that contribute to fulfilling our ambitions. At the end of this year, we will submit a single integrated plan as our institutional plan for 2026-2031 to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.