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Queen's University Corporate Plan 2011-16 - Perrett Laver

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QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

Welcome to our future


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

Recent achievements:<br />

• Accession to the Russell Group (2006)<br />

• Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education (2006)<br />

• Institution of Engineering and Technology Faraday Medal (2006)<br />

• UK Female Inventor of the Year (2007)<br />

• UK International Student of the Year (2008)<br />

• Royal Irish Academy Gold Medal (2008)<br />

• Times Higher Education Excellence and Innovation in the Arts (2008)<br />

• Times Higher Education Entrepreneurial <strong>University</strong> of the Year (2009)<br />

• St Andrews Prize for the Environment (2010)<br />

• Times Higher Education Outstanding Engineering Research Team<br />

of the Year (2010)<br />

• Royal Irish Academy Cunningham Medal (<strong>2011</strong>)<br />

• Global Entrepreneurship Educator (<strong>2011</strong>)<br />

• Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education (<strong>2011</strong>)<br />

• Times Higher Education Most Innovative Teacher of the Year (<strong>2011</strong>)<br />

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney<br />

Lifetime Achievement Award 2008<br />

Contents<br />

03. Our Mission<br />

05. Vice-Chancellor’s Foreword<br />

07. Our Strategic Priorities<br />

Still red brickwork<br />

Remains our bulwark:<br />

Here exercise<br />

Of mind has stood<br />

To us, for us<br />

These hundred years,<br />

And will, for good<br />

The Centenary Stanza<br />

by Seamus Heaney<br />

09. - To offer an exceptional student experience<br />

Winner of the Times Higher<br />

Education Most Innovative Teacher<br />

of the Year Award, Senior Teaching<br />

Fellow David Gibson OBE<br />

Times Higher Education<br />

Entrepreneurial <strong>University</strong><br />

of the Year 2009<br />

Queen’s <strong>University</strong> is simply<br />

an excellent example of what<br />

we were looking for from an<br />

entrepreneurial university -<br />

strong leadership and vision,<br />

real student engagement,<br />

innovative faculty and clear<br />

evidence of the impact they have<br />

made in their local environment<br />

National Council for Graduate<br />

Entrepreneurship (NCGE)<br />

11. - To enhance sustainable research areas<br />

13. - To grow an efficient, effective and sustainable enterprise<br />

15. - To develop global citizens and address<br />

international challenges<br />

17. Delivering the Strategic Priorities<br />

19. - Enhancing the Quality of our People<br />

21. - Enhancing the Quality of our Services<br />

23. - Enhancing the Quality of our Infrastructure<br />

25. <strong>Plan</strong> 924i


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

03/04<br />

Our Mission<br />

Our Mission... is to become:<br />

a world-class university that<br />

links Northern Ireland to the<br />

global community through<br />

the life-changing experience<br />

we offer to our students, the<br />

distinctive contribution made<br />

to society by our graduates<br />

and the high quality and<br />

impact of our research.


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

05/06<br />

Vice-Chancellor’s Foreword<br />

Vice-Chancellor’s<br />

Foreword<br />

Queen’s <strong>University</strong> Belfast has a reputation for excellence in<br />

education and research - a reputation which was acknowledged<br />

by our accession to the Russell Group of the UK’s 20 leading<br />

research-intensive universities in 2006.<br />

This landmark achievement has underpinned a period<br />

of transformational change throughout the period of the<br />

<strong>Corporate</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> 2006-11. Our progress has attracted outstanding<br />

external recognition, both to the <strong>University</strong> as an institution and<br />

to the remarkable people who are shaping its future.<br />

As this document goes to print we learn of further outstanding<br />

external recognition of the <strong>University</strong>’s reputation for<br />

excellence: our fifth Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and<br />

Further Education, awarded on this occasion for Northern<br />

Ireland’s Comprehensive Cancer Services programme.<br />

We have made significant progress towards the objectives set<br />

out in the previous <strong>Corporate</strong> <strong>Plan</strong>. We have enhanced the<br />

quality of our student intake, whilst maintaining access to a<br />

remarkably diverse student population. We have significantly<br />

increased the proportion of postgraduates and we have<br />

substantially increased the proportion of non-Government<br />

income to the <strong>University</strong>.<br />

In looking forward, Queen’s will maintain a clear and consistent<br />

strategic direction focused on excellence in learning and<br />

teaching, excellence in research and leadership in corporate<br />

social responsibility.<br />

In this <strong>Corporate</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> we recognise a key aspiration of the<br />

<strong>University</strong> to move ‘Towards a Global Top 100 <strong>University</strong>’, and<br />

identify four Strategic Priorities upon which we will focus over<br />

the next five years:<br />

• To offer an exceptional student experience and high<br />

quality education, leading to improved progression,<br />

attainment and excellent career opportunities for<br />

our graduates<br />

• To enhance internationally recognised, globally<br />

competitive and sustainable research areas<br />

• To grow an efficient, effective and sustainable enterprise<br />

• To develop global citizens and address international<br />

challenges.<br />

Delivering these priorities will require the continuous<br />

enhancement of our people, services and infrastructure.<br />

Actions and outcomes will be defined through the fully<br />

integrated Academic and Financial <strong>Plan</strong>, with resources being<br />

prioritised accordingly. Our progress against Key Performance<br />

Indicators and agreed targets will be reviewed annually through<br />

our well established Performance Management Reports.<br />

Our progress has attracted<br />

outstanding external recognition<br />

both to the <strong>University</strong> as an<br />

institution and to the remarkable<br />

people who are shaping its future<br />

Higher education is experiencing unprecedented change.<br />

The next five year period will be very challenging as reductions<br />

in Government funding take effect. The <strong>University</strong> will be<br />

innovative and creative in response, and this <strong>Plan</strong> responds with<br />

ambition to the opportunities provided by the new framework<br />

for the funding of higher education and student support in<br />

Northern Ireland.<br />

I commend this <strong>Corporate</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> as the template for the further<br />

development of our <strong>University</strong> over the coming five years, and<br />

I do so in the knowledge that the people of Queen’s are our<br />

greatest resource.<br />

Professor Sir Peter Gregson FREng MRIA


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

Our Strategic<br />

Priorities<br />

We are world-class...<br />

As a Russell Group <strong>University</strong> we are one of the UK’s 20<br />

leading research-intensive universities, providing a<br />

world-class education underpinned by world-class research


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

09/10<br />

Our Strategic Priorities<br />

STRATEGIC PRIORITY 1<br />

To offer an exceptional student<br />

experience and high quality<br />

education, leading to improved<br />

progression, attainment and<br />

excellent career opportunities<br />

for our graduates<br />

Over the last five years, Queen’s has developed a dynamic<br />

portfolio of education programmes, reflecting the changing<br />

aspirations of students and the future needs of employers from<br />

the professions to small and medium-sized enterprises and<br />

leading multi-nationals. Entrepreneurship is now embedded in<br />

all degree programmes; we excel in widening participation; we<br />

have increased the quality of our undergraduate cohort; and<br />

our postgraduate provision has increased significantly, moving<br />

closer to our goal of a 30% postgraduate student population.<br />

Our International and Postgraduate Student Centre has<br />

provided an excellent facility for our postgraduate students<br />

and the delivery of a distinctive experience for this cohort<br />

remains a priority.<br />

In looking forward we will continue to enhance the student<br />

experience with a particular focus on achieving high levels of<br />

progression and attainment across the <strong>University</strong>.<br />

To achieve this strategic priority, we will focus on selected<br />

strategic actions. We will:<br />

• Provide an academic environment where there is effective<br />

and enriched engagement between staff and students<br />

leading to a high quality education experience, high levels<br />

of student satisfaction and improved progression and<br />

attainment rates for all our students;<br />

• Complement the education experience with a campus life<br />

where students have access to first-class facilities and a<br />

wide range of sporting, social, cultural and communitybased<br />

activities to encourage the development of the<br />

whole person;<br />

• Ensure the curriculum is intellectually challenging, researchinformed,<br />

internationally relevant and delivered by our<br />

leading scholars to meet the current and future needs<br />

of our students and wider society;<br />

• Engage employers and alumni to develop the employability<br />

of our students through employer attuned courses,<br />

embedded skills and local and international opportunities<br />

for work placements.<br />

We will continue to develop<br />

a dynamic portfolio of education<br />

programmes, reflecting the changing<br />

aspirations of students and the future<br />

needs of employers<br />

We will judge our progress by monitoring performance<br />

against agreed targets to meet our ambitions for:<br />

• Progression and attainment levels of 90% for all<br />

undergraduate students, underpinned by advancement<br />

to the first quartile in UK <strong>University</strong> League Tables for our<br />

performance in the student experience;<br />

• Continued enhancement in quality of students gaining<br />

admission to the <strong>University</strong>;<br />

• Enhanced graduate employment.<br />

STUDENT OF THE YEAR 2010<br />

Vincent Murray was named Student<br />

of the Year in 2010. As Chair of<br />

Students In Free Enterprise, a global<br />

network at Queen’s dedicated to<br />

nurturing entrepreneurial skills, he led<br />

a number of peace and reconciliation<br />

projects and assisted a charity in<br />

Uganda which aims to improve the<br />

lives of families torn apart by the<br />

ravages of AIDS.


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

11/12<br />

Our Strategic Priorities<br />

STRATEGIC PRIORITY 2<br />

To enhance internationally<br />

recognised, globally competitive<br />

and sustainable research areas<br />

As a broadly-based, research-driven university, Queen’s priority<br />

is to achieve nationally and internationally recognised research<br />

excellence in all of its disciplines, with world-class research in<br />

distinctive niches and thematic areas.<br />

During the previous <strong>Corporate</strong> <strong>Plan</strong>ning period, the <strong>University</strong><br />

recorded a 13% increase in staff volume returned in the<br />

Research Assessment Exercise of 2008, with 53% of the research<br />

activity being rated as internationally competitive.<br />

The <strong>University</strong> has consolidated its position as a Top 20<br />

<strong>University</strong> in terms of research power. Major new partnerships<br />

with business (eg Petronas, Seagate and Bombardier) and with<br />

the public sector (eg Research Councils UK, Wellcome Trust<br />

and NI Health and Social Care Trusts) reflect the <strong>University</strong>’s<br />

growing reputation for high quality research and its translation<br />

to meet the needs of society.<br />

Considerable effort and focus will be required to improve<br />

research performance still further. Internationally competitive<br />

research requires excellent academic leadership, a critical<br />

mass of high quality researchers, sustained research income,<br />

and high impact research outputs which address the global<br />

challenges of our time.<br />

To achieve this strategic priority, we will focus on selected<br />

strategic actions. We will:<br />

• Continue to recruit transformational academic leaders and<br />

high quality early career academics and to grow capacity in<br />

selected areas whilst supporting the career development of<br />

our existing staff;<br />

• Enhance the recognition of high quality research through<br />

strategic placement of high impact outputs to increase<br />

citation rates;<br />

• Enhance international recognition through selective<br />

investment in recognised centres of excellence contributing<br />

to global challenges and leveraging research funding from<br />

RCUK, EU and corporate sources;<br />

• Continue to enhance our research environment and ensure<br />

that inter-disciplinary working is facilitated;<br />

• Ensure that the research activity of staff translates into an<br />

enhanced student experience.<br />

Queen’s priority is to achieve<br />

nationally and internationally<br />

recognised research excellence<br />

in all of its disciplines<br />

We will judge our progress by monitoring performance<br />

against agreed targets to meet our ambitions for:<br />

• High quality and high impact research as determined by<br />

selected external assessments including the Research<br />

Excellence Framework and Global League Tables;<br />

• Increased quality of research outputs in all disciplines<br />

leading to a measurable improvement in quality and impact,<br />

reflecting our ambition to progress towards a doubling of the<br />

institutional citation score;<br />

• Further international recognition of all centres of excellence<br />

at Queen’s;<br />

• Increased levels of research funding, comparable with that<br />

of peer institutions and increased income through corporate<br />

partnerships, consultancy and knowledge transfer;<br />

• Growing evidence of the international impact of our research.<br />

WORLD-CLASS RESEARCH<br />

Queen’s is home to the £7.5 million<br />

ANSIN research hub funded by<br />

Seagate Technology. The hub was<br />

officially opened by the Minister for<br />

Enterprise, Trade and Investment,<br />

Arlene Foster, who is pictured with<br />

Professor Robert Bowman, School<br />

of Mathematics and Physics, and<br />

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir<br />

Peter Gregson.


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

13/14<br />

Our Strategic Priorities<br />

STRATEGIC PRIORITY 3<br />

To grow an efficient, effective<br />

and sustainable enterprise<br />

Over the past five years, the <strong>University</strong> has seen a period of<br />

significant investment shaped by the priorities set out in the<br />

<strong>Corporate</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> 2006-11. We have demonstrated our willingness<br />

to embrace change strategically by identifying areas for<br />

disinvestment in order to free resources for new investment in<br />

areas of strength as, for example, in our recent campaign to<br />

recruit to thirty-five transformational professorial positions.<br />

We are living in changing times. Meeting ambitious goals<br />

within a scenario of reduced public funding presents a<br />

particular challenge. Costs must be removed and non-<br />

Government income increased to enable focused and selective<br />

investment in areas of agreed strategic priority. Sustainability is<br />

a key priority across the <strong>University</strong>. The funding settlement for<br />

higher education in Northern Ireland creates the opportunity<br />

for targeted expansion of the student population.<br />

We must ensure that we continue to invest in our academic<br />

provision, in our people and in our infrastructure in a way that<br />

enhances the long-term sustainability of the <strong>University</strong>.<br />

Meeting ambitious goals within<br />

a scenario of reduced public funding<br />

presents a particular challenge<br />

To achieve this strategic priority, we will focus on selected<br />

strategic actions. We will:<br />

• Selectively expand our student population, attracting<br />

increased numbers of students from Northern Ireland, other<br />

UK regions and international markets;<br />

• Diversify the income base, including research, consultancy,<br />

commercial and philanthropy, to reduce our dependence on<br />

the core Government grant;<br />

• Ensure the most efficient and effective provision of services,<br />

with management actions and resource allocation aligned to<br />

this end;<br />

• Develop a culture of robust, effective and timely decisionmaking,<br />

promoting a greater sense of ownership and<br />

responsibility in decision-making at all levels, underpinned by<br />

transparency and excellent communication;<br />

• Build on our corporate performance management reporting,<br />

drawing on accessible and robust management information<br />

with progress being monitored by smart KPIs consistently<br />

used across ‘one university’;<br />

• Strengthen engagement with the Foundation Board in<br />

supporting and delivering key institutional projects.<br />

We will judge our progress by monitoring performance<br />

against agreed targets to meet our ambitions for:<br />

• An increasingly multi-cultural student population, with<br />

Northern Ireland students broadening their experiences<br />

through international internships and study abroad<br />

programmes;<br />

• An increasingly diversified income base, securing resources<br />

from a wide range of sources and increasing our leverage<br />

against Government income, reinforcing our commitment to<br />

4% growth, year-on-year, in our non-block grant income;<br />

• A sustainable business model to deliver the core mission of<br />

teaching and research underpinned by effective engagement<br />

and the communication of our value propositions to our<br />

customers, internal and external;<br />

• Minimise cross-subsidy in order to maximise investment in<br />

agreed strategic priorities.<br />

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION<br />

Founders’ Club members contributed<br />

more than £1 million to Queen’s Executive<br />

Education Centre at Riddel Hall. Members<br />

are pictured with the Registrar and Chief<br />

Operating Officer, James O’Kane, and<br />

Director of Development and Alumni<br />

Relations Norma Sinte.


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

15/<strong>16</strong><br />

Our Strategic Priorities<br />

STRATEGIC PRIORITY 4<br />

To develop global citizens and<br />

address international challenges<br />

While Queen’s has recently enjoyed some high profile<br />

international recognition for its work in ‘green chemistry’<br />

with Petronas and in winning the St Andrews Prize for the<br />

Environment for leading a project that will deliver arsenic-free<br />

drinking water to 80 million people in South East Asia, the<br />

<strong>University</strong> lacks the international presence of its comparator<br />

universities, whether that is measured by international student<br />

recruitment or by international research collaboration.<br />

In <strong>2011</strong>, the <strong>University</strong> agreed a new Internationalisation<br />

Strategy, and full and effective implementation is now the<br />

priority. The past year has seen greater engagement with this<br />

agenda across the <strong>University</strong>, and we are now in a position<br />

to capitalise on these developments. Recent institutional<br />

collaborations have included a joint venture with INTO<br />

<strong>University</strong> Partnerships and strategic partnerships with<br />

Georgetown and Vanderbilt Universities, <strong>University</strong> Malaya<br />

and Petronas, Bengal Engineering and Science <strong>University</strong> and<br />

the National Institute of Immunology in India, and Shanghai<br />

Jiao Tong <strong>University</strong>, Shenzhen <strong>University</strong> and the China<br />

Medical <strong>University</strong>.<br />

We will now build on these developments to ensure that our<br />

students of today become the global citizens of tomorrow, and<br />

in partnership with leading institutions around the world, we<br />

make our full contribution to meet global challenges.<br />

To achieve this strategic priority, we will focus on selected<br />

strategic actions. We will:<br />

• Focus our efforts on increasing international student<br />

recruitment and mobility, the pursuit of high quality, high<br />

impact research with international collaborators, profile<br />

building in-country, and powerful alumni engagement;<br />

• Provide a distinctive and sought-after experience for<br />

international students;<br />

• Develop and implement an integrated marketing and<br />

recruitment plan to meet realistic and agreed international<br />

recruitment targets, supported by a comprehensive<br />

scholarship framework;<br />

• Strengthen our engagement with international stakeholders,<br />

including our international alumni;<br />

• Continue to strengthen our profile in-country through<br />

recognised partnerships and physical presence.<br />

We will ensure that our<br />

students of today become the<br />

global citizens of tomorrow<br />

We will judge our progress by monitoring performance<br />

against agreed targets to meet our ambitions for:<br />

• Growing an international student population to 10% of the<br />

total student population by 20<strong>16</strong>;<br />

• Increased numbers of Queen’s students gaining international<br />

experience;<br />

• New international research collaborations leading to high<br />

quality research outputs;<br />

• Increased international research income from global funding<br />

bodies, companies, trusts and philanthropy.<br />

INTERNATIONAL LABORATORIES<br />

Collaboration with Petronas, the<br />

Malaysian Fortune 500 oil and gas<br />

company, resulted in the creation<br />

at Queen’s of the first universitybased<br />

Petronas laboratory in Europe.<br />

Pictured are Datuk Dr Zainal Abidin<br />

Haji Kasim, Vice-Chancellor of<br />

Universiti Teknologi Petronas and<br />

Professor Ken Seddon, Co-Director<br />

of QUILL, School of Chemistry and<br />

Chemical Engineering.


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

Delivering the<br />

Strategic Priorities<br />

No matter where I meet people in the world,<br />

there is a path that leads back to Queen’s<br />

Successful delivery of the strategic priorities will require the complete<br />

engagement of all staff, the provision of high quality professional<br />

services and continued investment in the <strong>University</strong> infrastructure.<br />

Dr Liam Neeson OBE,<br />

Actor and Honorary Graduate


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

19/20<br />

Delivering the Strategic Priorities<br />

Enhancing the Quality<br />

of our People<br />

Our staff are Queen’s most valuable resource and, at any time,<br />

our most significant investment. Our ongoing success depends<br />

on the outstanding performance of all our staff and, as with our<br />

students, it is important that staff feel proud to work at Queen’s<br />

and are engaged with its goals and plans.<br />

We will continue to provide a staffing profile which is aligned to<br />

the forward looking priorities of the <strong>University</strong>. Within a positive<br />

working environment we will recruit the best individuals and<br />

develop them to realise their full potential.<br />

We will cultivate an ethos of high quality leadership and<br />

management. In partnership with the Leadership Foundation<br />

for Higher Education, we have introduced pan-<strong>University</strong><br />

Leadership Development Programmes to raise our capabilities<br />

and make our <strong>University</strong> ever more responsive to change.<br />

We will become an ‘employer of choice’, maintaining our<br />

sector-leading commitment to equality and diversity with<br />

particular emphasis on extending best practice as recognised<br />

by Athena Swan Awards and through our position as the top<br />

employer for women in Northern Ireland and one of two UK<br />

universities in the Top 50.<br />

We are committed to developing the alumni network as a<br />

potent force of mutual support for each other and for their<br />

alma mater. We will engage with our alumni to broaden the<br />

recruitment, experience and employment opportunities for our<br />

students and to support philanthropic giving to enhance the<br />

development of our <strong>University</strong> and its people. We must further<br />

develop a network of influential opinion formers to enhance<br />

Queen’s profile regionally, nationally and internationally.<br />

Actions to Support Delivery of Strategic Priorities<br />

• Embed a culture of positive performance across the<br />

<strong>University</strong> through consistent implementation of Performance<br />

Management for all staff, both to reward good performance<br />

and to address underperformance;<br />

• Implement a sustained recruitment campaign to increase<br />

the numbers of academic staff and to support the successful<br />

delivery of our education and research objectives;<br />

• Review and develop a more effective framework to enhance<br />

the level of meaningful staff engagement in Schools<br />

and Directorates, supported by current technology and<br />

social media;<br />

Our staff are Queen’s most<br />

valuable resource and, at any time,<br />

our most significant investment<br />

• Promote equality and diversity in all staffing matters, with<br />

particular emphasis on maintaining our progress towards<br />

achieving a more representative proportion of female staff in<br />

senior positions, especially in the STEM subjects;<br />

• Provision of effective and up-to-date staff development<br />

opportunities for all staff;<br />

• Development of an environmentally aware workforce<br />

and student community, recognising and realising the<br />

opportunities created through individual and <strong>University</strong><br />

contributions to global sustainability.<br />

LEADING EXPERTS<br />

Queen’s Professor Maire O’Neill<br />

was the UK Female Inventor of the<br />

Year in 2007 and is now regarded as<br />

one of Europe’s leading experts in<br />

cryptography. Her work focuses on<br />

security in modern communications<br />

and the development of radio<br />

frequency identification tags.


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

21/22<br />

Delivering the Strategic Priorities<br />

Enhancing the Quality<br />

of our Services<br />

High quality professional services are provided by our unitary<br />

academic support sector. The Directorates ensure the efficient<br />

and effective operation of a complex and highly performing<br />

university and contribute to the strategic goals by supporting<br />

all aspects of the core mission of the <strong>University</strong>.<br />

An aspiration to be ‘best in class’, together with a drive towards<br />

greater ‘customer focus’, has been a guiding principle in<br />

recent years. Engagement with both internal and external<br />

customers, from our students and post-primary schools to<br />

employers and research funders, has been a priority. It has<br />

informed, for example, the restructuring within our Directorates<br />

and the development of our Student Guidance Centre, the<br />

International and Postgraduate Student Centre, and the<br />

Executive Education Centre at Riddel Hall.<br />

The <strong>University</strong> is currently investing in its core management<br />

information systems to underpin efficient data collation and<br />

reporting within and outwith the <strong>University</strong>. Full implementation<br />

of these systems will ensure that information is collected,<br />

managed and disseminated in the most efficient manner and<br />

used to inform high quality and timely decision-making. This will<br />

be especially important as the <strong>University</strong> seeks to be ever more<br />

responsive to the changing needs and expectations of society.<br />

We will continue to develop a culture in which staff take<br />

ownership and responsibility for their decisions and ‘add<br />

value’ in everything they do. We will further develop the ‘one<br />

university’ concept, encouraging respect and collaboration<br />

across the <strong>University</strong>. At all times we will seek the most efficient<br />

means of delivering a high quality, and people-centred, service.<br />

The quality of our services will be continually enhanced to meet<br />

the needs of a highly performing university.<br />

An aspiration to be ‘best in<br />

class’, together with a drive towards<br />

greater ‘customer focus’, has been a<br />

guiding principle in recent years<br />

Actions to Support Delivery of Strategic Priorities<br />

• Recognise the <strong>University</strong> as a ‘customer-based organisation’<br />

in which positive and timely engagement is fostered with all<br />

customers, from students to research partners;<br />

• Understand the perceptions of students, staff and external<br />

customers, and introduce a ‘customer satisfaction’ Key<br />

Performance Indicator with action plans to increase the<br />

level of satisfaction of all customers;<br />

• Invest in our core management information systems to<br />

underpin efficient data collation and reporting within and<br />

outwith the <strong>University</strong>;<br />

• Streamline our processes and procedures, removing<br />

unnecessary bureaucracy and facilitating effective and<br />

timely decision-making.<br />

MEDICS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS<br />

Northern Ireland’s Chief Medical<br />

Officer Dr Michael McBride is given a<br />

‘health check’ by Megan McNulty, a P7<br />

pupil at Lisnasharragh Primary School,<br />

at the <strong>2011</strong> Medics in Primary Schools<br />

launch. Through the initiative<br />

undergraduate medical students<br />

spend time in primary schools, giving<br />

pupils a better understanding of their<br />

own health.


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

23/24<br />

Delivering the Strategic Priorities<br />

Enhancing the Quality<br />

of our Infrastructure<br />

Our estate has been transformed over the past decade, and<br />

Queen’s now has one of the most distinctive campuses in the<br />

UK or Ireland. Within a rolling five year strategic plan, £205m<br />

has been invested in maintaining and enhancing the estate,<br />

with significant enhancements to the facilities for learning,<br />

research, service provision and the working and recreational<br />

environment for students and staff.<br />

A <strong>University</strong> commitment to reinvest 5% of the insurable value<br />

of the estate each year, together with effective leverage of<br />

Government funding and rigorous adherence to the delivery<br />

of business plans, has underpinned successful execution of<br />

an ambitious Capital <strong>Plan</strong> to create distinctive and effective<br />

living spaces to enhance the experience of the staff and<br />

students of Queen’s.<br />

Major capital projects have included: the prize-winning McClay<br />

Library; the innovative Institute for Electronics, Communications<br />

and Information Technology as anchor tenant on the Northern<br />

Ireland Science Park; the <strong>University</strong>’s Centre for Cancer<br />

Research and Cell Biology co-located with the Belfast Clinical<br />

Cancer Centre; the new Executive Education Centre co-located<br />

with the Queen’s <strong>University</strong> Management School on the Riddel<br />

Hall Campus; and the creation of a distinctive suite of student<br />

facilities, including Queen’s Elms Village, Students’ Union,<br />

Student Guidance Centre, International and Postgraduate<br />

Student Centre, and the extended Physical Education Centre<br />

and refurbished Malone Playing Fields.<br />

We will continue to maintain and enhance the <strong>University</strong>’s<br />

estate and IT infrastructure to support the strategic priorities<br />

set out in this <strong>Plan</strong>.<br />

After our people, serviced space is our most costly asset and<br />

we must continue to promote a culture of effective and efficient<br />

use of high quality facilities across the <strong>University</strong>.<br />

We will maintain our commitment to strategic investment in our<br />

infrastructure, although the level of investment will be impacted<br />

by the reductions in Government funding. The development<br />

of the new Health Sciences Campus is the largest and most<br />

ambitious development of the estate in the history of the<br />

<strong>University</strong> and will extend beyond the period of this <strong>Plan</strong>.<br />

Enhancing connectivity to high speed, accessible and secure IT<br />

systems is a priority across the <strong>University</strong> and we will maintain<br />

a rolling programme of equipment upgrade for those services<br />

provided in-house and to manage efficient provision of that<br />

which can be outsourced effectively.<br />

Actions to Support Delivery of Strategic Priorities<br />

• Continue to invest strategically in the estate and IT<br />

infrastructure to support the delivery of the four strategic<br />

priorities, although the level of investment will be reduced<br />

as a result of the reductions in Government funding;<br />

• Continue to enhance the sustainability of our estate;<br />

• Seek greater utilisation of space, particularly in regard to<br />

teaching while seeking further opportunities to develop<br />

new income streams through external contracts;<br />

• Progress development of the Health Sciences Campus<br />

to provide a focus for the pursuit of world-class medical<br />

education and translational research.<br />

Our estate has been<br />

transformed over the past decade,<br />

and Queen’s now has one of the<br />

most distinctive campuses in the<br />

UK or Ireland<br />

WORLD-CLASS FACILITIES<br />

The McClay Library, which has<br />

2,000 reader places and houses<br />

1.2 million volumes, won the RICS<br />

(Royal Institution of Chartered<br />

Surveyors) Sustainability Award 2010.<br />

Pictured with the award is Director<br />

of Estates Gary Jebb (left) and<br />

Alistair Dunn, Chairman of the<br />

RICS NI Judging Panel.


QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY BELFAST<br />

CORPORATE PLAN <strong>2011</strong>-20<strong>16</strong><br />

25/26<br />

<strong>Plan</strong> 924i<br />

<strong>Plan</strong> 924i<br />

This <strong>Corporate</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> focuses on four strategic priorities which, if<br />

fully implemented, will progress the <strong>University</strong>’s stated ambition<br />

to move ‘Towards a Global Top 100 <strong>University</strong>’. At the heart<br />

of this <strong>Corporate</strong> <strong>Plan</strong> will be <strong>Plan</strong> 924i where the strategic<br />

priorities are each summarised by a core numeric goal:<br />

9 - reminding us that we will not only increase student<br />

satisfaction levels but, through this, achieve 90% progression<br />

and attainment rates for all undergraduate students by 20<strong>16</strong><br />

These institutional goals will be reflected in specific targets<br />

which will be agreed for the <strong>University</strong> and for individual<br />

Schools and Directorates. Our progress will be judged through<br />

our well established framework for Performance Management.<br />

Every member of the Queen’s family can contribute to <strong>Plan</strong><br />

924i; together we will shape the next stage of development<br />

of our exceptional <strong>University</strong>.<br />

Every member of the Queen’s<br />

family can contribute to <strong>Plan</strong> 924i;<br />

together we will shape the next<br />

stage of development of our<br />

exceptional <strong>University</strong><br />

STUDENT OF THE YEAR <strong>2011</strong><br />

2 - reflecting our ambition to progress towards a doubling of<br />

the institutional citation score<br />

4 - reinforcing our commitment to 4% growth in income,<br />

year-on-year, from sources other than the Government<br />

block grant<br />

Therese White was named Student<br />

of the Year in <strong>2011</strong>. She won an<br />

internship with NASA in Florida, the<br />

only UK student to do so, and assisted<br />

with preparations for the final mission<br />

of the space shuttle, Endeavour.<br />

i - reflecting that internationalisation pervades all that we do<br />

and we will deliver on our plans to increase the diversity of<br />

our students and the global reputation of our research.


For further information,<br />

please contact the <strong>University</strong>’s Communications<br />

and External Affairs Office<br />

Tel: +44 (0) 28 9097 3091<br />

E-mail: comms.office@qub.ac.uk<br />

CDS 73977<br />

www.qub.ac.uk

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