BIRMINGHAM 2030: OUR AMBITION
During the last decade, the University of Birmingham has been transformed. Our strong emphasis on intellectually rigorous education and pioneering research across the full breadth of disciplines has led our students to attain increasingly impressive outcomes, and our research has enjoyed growing global significance and societal impact. We have a remarkable platform on which to build, yet there is more we can achieve.
Over the next decade, our aspiration is to establish Birmingham in the top 50 of the world’s leading universities.
This Strategic Framework sets out how we will pursue this highly challenging ambition. With world-class research and outstanding global education as our core mission, we will strive to increase the volume and quality of our research to make an even greater difference to the world around us. We will be the UK’s exemplary civic university, remaining firmly committed to our foundations in the highly diverse communities, people, and economy of the city of Birmingham and the West Midlands. We will maintain our financial strength to enable investment in our academic mission, allowing us to make the most of the extensive breadth and quality of the University’s academic disciplines. We will take full advantage of our signature projects, innovation sites, and capital developments to make a lasting impact in all the regions in which we operate, and globally.
This is a demanding task and we must recognise the scale of the challenges we must set ourselves if we are to succeed.
The global environment for research-intensive universities is increasingly complex and competitive. Universities likes ours now operate from multiple international locations, teach and recruit highly mobile students and academics from around the world, collaborate extensively, receive income from multiple sources, and operate complex research infrastructure. Leading international universities have a number of large-scale, globally recognised academic strengths. Importantly, the academic quality of top universities underpins a wider reputation that secures their international stature.
The Covid pandemic has presented exceptional challenges. We are proud that our response to the pandemic has demonstrated the impressive resilience of the University and its people. At the same time, we know that it will leave a legacy for society and the economy from which it may take several years to recover. The breadth we enjoy at Birmingham will allow us to respond by shaping policy, supporting economic recovery, understanding cultural change, and creating innovative solutions to the challenges we will face.
The UK’s long-established position in global higher education is increasingly challenged internationally, with significant competition for the best academics, students, and research funding. For UK universities, Brexit has also required renegotiation of our relationships with Europe and the wider world. In the coming years, UK higher education policy is likely to experience more constrained financial settlements, accompanied by greater government intervention in research priorities and education programmes: this will require us to prioritise carefully.
The prominence of universities globally places them under greater scrutiny, frequently at the centre of ‘culture wars’ and in the context of a political populism that underappreciates the value of higher education. Students increasingly perceive their relationship with their university as a consumer. Together, these factors lead to increased regulatory burden, public accountability, and political pressure.
These are the long-term trends within which this framework is situated. We face these challenges with confidence, knowing that we have strong foundations, exceptional capability amongst our people, and longstanding financial strength. Great universities draw on their strengths to chart their own course: we will remain confident in the course set out in this framework.