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Strategy refresh
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Shaping our future, refreshing our Strategy

In 2026, we refreshed the current Strategy to guide us until 2035 and beyond.

This was not the launch of a new strategy. Our commitment to public good is an enduring one, whatever challenge or change is thrown at us. 

We knew our four strategic principles remain: environmental sustainability, interdisciplinary collaboration, internationalism and inclusion. Our commitment to these principles remains as firm - and enduring - as ever. 

https://youtu.be/bqa5hBEd9Fk

Evolving our Aims

As we refreshed our strategy, we moved from four to six Strategic Aims. This reflects the determination to deepen our anchor role in our city and region, rethink how we work internationally and build our financial resilience.

Our community engagement

At the start of March 2026, the Vice-Chancellor hosted three all-staff Meetings to set the scene for the strategy refresh. Between March and May 2026, we held a series of discussion forums, engaging with our networks and committees, and creating new opportunities for everyone in our community to reflect on the evolved Strategic Aims and share their perspectives. 

In total, 1,912 staff, students and alumni join us to share a range of views, prompted by discussions around 12 key community questions: 

  1. How will we work across disciplines and institutions to maintain our competitiveness and success in research as funding opportunities change over the next years?
  2. How will we drive up the proportion of industry income in our research portfolio to double or treble that of now by 2035? 
  3. How much space in our curriculum should there be for work-related learning and skills as we adapt to a changing graduate labour market and changing student expectations?
  4. What will it take for York to become an online education provider at scale?
  5. How will we ensure our teaching and student services support the increasing diversity of our students (widening access, commuter, articulation, international, online, part-time, CPD, apprenticeship, transnational educational partnerships) as the modes and locations in which we deliver our education evolve? 
  6. How will we build and deepen a civic partnership in York which helps to renew and deepen public trust in universities?
  7. What is our appetite for closer collaboration with partner universities in the region in research, student education, enterprise and university operations? 
  8. How will we practise our academic mission of quality and purpose across, say, five transnational educational partnerships (TNE) campuses in different parts of the world? 
  9. How will we grow the scale of our research portfolio through international partnerships, including work developed through our TNE campuses?
  10. How will we support academic and professional services staff to fulfil their potential at the different stages of their career in light of change in the sector? Do we understand and support the needs of all of our staff in the light of these changes? 
  11. How will we need to adapt and develop our partnership with our student body amid the changes we are set to face?
  12. How different will our physical and digital infrastructure need to be in ten years time?

Thank you to everyone who took part in these discussions.

Strategy refresh timeline

From March until May 2026, we talked to our community, gathering your ideas and feedback. These were reviewed by University Council in May 2026, and conversations continued in June and July to plan priorities and delivery. University Council approved the refreshed strategy at its summer meeting.

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