Development of a new Faculty Strategic Plan

07 December 2020

At the end of October, the Steering Committee, headed by Dean Mark Rutgers, gave the green light for the development of the new Faculty Strategic Plan for 2021-2026. How does this process go?

Our Faculty’s current Strategic Plan will come to an end next year. We want to involve as many people as possible from our organisation as well as our partners outside the Faculty in the development of the new plan.

Steering Committee leading the way

The Faculty Board is responsible for the development of the Strategic Plan in general, but the Strategic Plan Steering Committee is entrusted with the day-to-day work. The Steering Committee comprises three Board members/academics and three members of the support staff. The members of this committee are Mark Rutgers (dean and chair of the committee), Sybille Lammes (professor of New Media and Digital Culture and academic director of LUCAS) and Giles Scott-Smith (programme director and professor by special appointment in History). The departments of Policy and Management Support (BBO) (Iris Rahusen and Tim Lamers) and Communication & Marketing (Carin Gelpke) will provide the committee with both substantive and organisational support.

The purpose of a Strategic Plan

The Faculty Strategic Plan (FSP):

serves as a guide for policy decisions in the years ahead
provides us an opportunity to inspire each other
prompts us to adapt existing processes so that they are ready for the future
gives us a common goal and agenda

Mark Rutgers added: ‘The FSP serves as a compass for our future. It is important that we work together to get the preparations right, so that there is plenty of support for the new plan. Our aim is to produce a compelling and realistic vision with a good implementation plan.’

How will the plan be drawn up?

Discussions with our students, staff and partners will form the basis for developing the Faculty Strategic Plan. We will also be setting up working groups, organising online and in-person meetings and talking to our local partners. During interviews we will ask them to share their perceptions and expectations of our Faculty as well as any potential opportunities they see for us.

In 2021, we will work together to determine the main themes and ambitions for the coming years. The findings will form the building blocks for the new Faculty Strategic Plan. ‘It’s important that the people at our Faculty are given every opportunity to get involved in the development process. After all, this plan for the future has to benefit and belong to us all,’ commented Giles Scott-Smith.

And, of course, we will make sure that our plan is in keeping with the University’s strategy. The University Strategic Plan is also currently being developed.

It all starts with a shared vision and mission

Developing a new Faculty Strategic Plan is also an opportunity to formulate mission and vision that have broad support. At the end of 2020, the organisation will be asked, via the various bodies, to share the aspects that they think are indispensable for our mission and vision. And a mission and a vision are not the same thing: a mission says something about our identity, it is about what we stand for; the vision tells us and the world what we ultimately want to achieve. Sybille Lammes: ‘Our vision needs to have clarity and depth, there must be a shared goal. That doesn’t necessarily mean losing our diversity; it means that we, all the different stakeholders, have to join forces.’

The mission and vision will form the basis for the further development of the FSP.