The Vision towards 2007: update

Visible progress in creating a 21st century campus, highly encouraging student recruitment figures and a vibrant contribution to the social and cultural scene are among the list of achievements highlighted by University Principal Sir Alan Langlands during his recent staff updates on the vision towards 2007 at Ninewells and on main campus.

Coming a year after the University's strategy for the future was first published, the Principal's updates illustrated progress towards the three key strategic goals - excellence in learning and teaching, internationally competitive research and effective knowledge transfer, and a 21st century environment.

Setting the context, Sir Alan reiterated warnings about the pattern of decline in Scotland's population with the number of young people in 2027 projected to drop by almost 25%. Against this background the importance of overseas recruitment can hardly be overestimated. This year’s figures show the number of undergraduate entrants to the University has gone up 6.3%. Those matriculating on taught postgraduate courses have gone up 35% and of these the number from overseas has gone up by 79%.

New courses, such as Forensic Anthropology and Women Culture and Society, have shown their value in attracting students and interdisciplinary courses such as the international business course has proved particularly attractive to students outside the UK, attracting 36 of its 37 students from overseas. Some 29 new undergraduate courses are on the prospectus for 2005.

There was good news too on the financial front where the results of the recent Spending Review were more optimistic than expected, with major cash injections going into universities’ capital funding streams and government spending on higher education in Scotland set to rise to over £1 billion for the first time in 2007/8.

Progress on the virtual learning environment, postgraduate facilities and plans for the development of the library were warmly welcomed.  Continuing success in research was highlighted and the attraction of leading international academics among the 20 new professors appointed over the last year is a keystone for the future.

Creating a 21st century environment is a key objective in the Vision, and work is well underway on a range of developments including the creation of 1100 new student bedrooms, improved learning, teaching and research facilities, plus network infrastructure improvements.

A number of 'new ways of working' were also touched on. These include the involvement of the Deans in the University's senior management team, closer working between Faculties, new approaches explicitly linking teaching and research, workforce and finance; and more responsive academic and student services.

The challenge now is to continue this progress on all fronts - progress which, Sir Alan said, could never have been achieved without the hard work, commitment, dedication and vision of staff across the university.