Report 01/43

HEFCE strategic plan 2001-06

Foreword and strategic aims (read on-line)

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Foreword

Higher education plays a key role in improving our country’s economic competitiveness and social fairness. Universities and colleges already deliver high quality teaching and research, attracting large numbers of students from around the world and continually creating new knowledge. The challenge now is not only to maintain and build on existing strengths, but also to welcome innovation and stimulate improvement.

Our strategic plan sets out a radical agenda. It includes the need to widen participation, particularly by students from disadvantaged backgrounds. It seeks to exploit the potential of new technology through initiatives like the e-University. It looks to fund new ways of exploiting teaching and research for the benefit of business and the community.

None of these challenges will be easy – they require vision, imagination and the willingness to change. Nevertheless, I am confident that the diversity of our universities and colleges will ensure a leading role for English and indeed UK higher education.

I recognise that we in the HEFCE need to change also. We need to continually evaluate what we do, making sure that our policies support the efforts of universities and colleges to meet the many demands and expectations they face. That is why we carried out a fundamental review of research policy, and that is why we took seriously the higher education sector’s concerns about the increasing cost of accountability processes. Our strategic plan describes how we intend to take forward these and other initiatives for improvement.

This is my last year as Chief Executive. I am proud of the contribution that the HEFCE has made to the vitality of the sector. The credit for this must go to my enthusiastic, dedicated and talented staff. They have helped make my time here as Chief Executive stimulating and often enjoyable. My successor Professor Sir Howard Newby can look forward to working with an excellent team.

The Council prides itself on openness as well as commitment, working with many partners at the institutional and individual level. We welcome any comments they might have on the policies and activities set out in this plan.

Sir Brian Fender CMG
Chief Executive

Strategic aims

to achieve our mission, we aim to:

Partnership		Funding high-quality, cost-effective teaching and research		Diversity

a. Develop and sustain effective partnerships with institutions, employers, other funding and professional bodies, and others with a stake in higher education, by providing clear and open information and promoting collaboration between them.

b. Advise Government and other stakeholders on higher education’s needs and aspirations, and help make widely known the achievements and opportunities offered by higher education, particularly to students.

c. Promote and support productive interaction between HE and business and the community in order to encourage the transfer of knowledge and expertise, and enhance the relevance of programmes of teaching and research to the needs of employers and the economy.

d. Promote high standards of education so as to advance knowledge and scholarship, encourage improvement, enterprise and innovation, and enhance students’ learning experience and employment prospects.

e. Promote high standards of research so as to advance knowledge and scholarship and encourage improvement, enterprise and innovation.

f. Use consultation, research and benchmarking to increase knowledge and understanding of higher education, and inform policy development.

g. Promote effective financial and human resource management, accountability for the use of public funds, and value for money.

h. Contribute to the healthy development of higher education in this country and overseas by learning from international experience, and helping to promote the reputation of UK higher education abroad.

i. Encourage institutions to increase access, secure equal opportunities, support lifelong learning, and maximise achievement for all who can benefit from higher education.

j. Maintain and encourage the development of a wide variety of institutions with a diversity of missions that build upon their local, regional, national and international strengths and are responsive to change, within a financially healthy sector.

k. Enable our staff to provide a high-quality service, within an open and supportive working environment