About the project

Strategy 2020-2025

The refreshed College Strategy 2020-2025 builds on the College's vision for the future articulated in its Strategy 2015-20, extending our ambitions through the Academic Strategy and additional aspirations. The refresh of the College Strategy was supported by Council, President’s Board and colleagues from across the College. The College Strategy 2020-2025 acknowledges the accomplishments of staff and students since 2015 and guides the community through new challenges to realise the College’s mission of excellence in research and education.

Strategy 2015-20

Background

The College's Strategy 2010-2014 articulated the College's vision for the future, including its main goals and ambitions. The strategy reflected a broader vision for the period up to and beyond 2020. 

The approach for the College Strategy 2015-2020 emphasised the College’s strength in our core disciplines, on which multidisciplinary research and education formed the platform for addressing global challenges. These Global Challenges then became the themes around which the strategy was structured.  At the core were the ‘strategy enablers’ – the inherently international Imperial community (students, staff and alumni) and the intellectual and physical environment and associated infrastructure (including digital infrastructure).

The process

In March 2014, initial discussions were held at a Strategy Development Away Day, where the Faculty Deans presented their 10-year visions for the College. The Provost gave a presentation examining the key changes that had occurred both internally and externally over the period of the College Strategy 2010-2014, and discussed what makes a good strategy, and what elements of our previous strategy remain relevant today.

A Strategy Project Group was then set up by the Provost to facilitate the development of the new Strategy. This group supported seven workstreams which developed ideas for the Strategy. The workstreams presented their initial ideas at two interim workshops in early October 2014. Following this, workstreams continued to develop their ideas for the strategy and in late November 2014 presented these to a wider audience (the President, the Provost, members of the Vice Provost's Advisory Groups for Education and Research, and members of the President's Board and Provost's Board). Summary of key themes emerging from the workshops in October and November (pdf)

At the Heads of Department lunch on 7 October, the Provost provided an update on the strategy development process and the emerging themes from the interim workshops (see above). Thoughts were also captured on the College's current mission and vision, read a summary of the discussion that took place (pdf)

As a next step, a Strategy Green Paper was drafted building on the ideas of the workstreams. The Green Paper is a preliminary document intended to stimulate discussion and to form the basis for a wider consultation on the Strategy. Input was sought from College Council at its Strategy Away Day in February 2015. A College wide consultation on the strategy took place in March 2015.