Launch of the University Strategy to 2035 and priorities for 2026/27

Posted on Tuesday 6 October 2026

Dear colleagues,

Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts and joined our Strategy Refresh conversations. A significant number of staff took the opportunity to be involved and your feedback has been invaluable in shaping this next iteration of our Strategy.

We set out to create open discussions, guided by our twelve 'community questions'. We held all-staff meetings, targeted discussions with our established committees and networks, campus drop-ins, and received direct individual submissions.

Led by Professor Kiran Trehan, our Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise, Partnership and Engagement, we saw 1,912 staff, students and alumni join us to share a range of views. Thank you - those insights have now been directly integrated into our strategic priorities across all of our six Strategic Aims.

Examples of how your feedback is shaping priorities

To share just a few clear examples of how your input helped refine our approach:

1. Transnational Education and Research (TNER)

You spoke strongly about the need to pair transnational education opportunities with world-class research. In response, our strategy features international campuses as co-created research hubs, as well as how we will practise global social responsibility that connects both research and education to humanitarian issues and builds partnerships that support those affected by conflict.

2. Workload and career development

You highlighted the real impact of change fatigue and high workloads. We have embedded explicit commitments to managing workload balance and to create clearer, structured career pathways for all academic, professional and technical roles. One of our key projects is specifically about creating development opportunities for professional services staff.

3. Physical and digital infrastructure

You emphasised that our physical spaces and digital tools must adapt to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse University community, which is now also reflected directly in our Strategy.

For our students, we identified that employability - and specifically what we refer to as 'work-related learning' - is their absolute top priority for the refreshed Strategy. I hope you will hear and see these 'York voices' in our new Strategy, sharing what you're proud of and what you see as our biggest challenges.

Our Strategy looking ahead to 2035

So, our refreshed Strategy sets out our direction through to 2035, which has now been approved by our University Council. Please do take some time to explore all that it covers.

Within it, we restate our Principles. In each of our Aims, we also outline our strategic priorities and share some of the key projects and initiatives that are paving the way for us to meet the challenges of being a University for Public Good.

Immediate priorities for 2026/27

Your feedback revealed a tension between supporting these aspirational, ambitious strategic aims and the need for operational reality and modernisation.

To make sure we make practical progress, we are focusing on six priority areas for the 2026/27 academic year. These plans and projects are all well documented in the Strategy, but provide us immediate focus.

1. Delivering on our five-year forecast. We'll do this through rigorous rounds of planning, as well as diversifying income and improving governance oversight.
2. Revitalise education. We're creating stronger programme teams to build a culture of pedagogic innovation, revitalising Senate and focusing on priorities like work-related learning.
3. A focus on research and enterprise. We'll scale income from the private economy, prepare for REF and regional opportunities, and strengthen research where York has distinctive leadership and opportunity.
4. Deliver services. We're moving at pace with our HR and Finance Transformation project, and we are developing our comprehensive vision for student services.
5. Advance campus revitalisation. We're reviewing how we make the most of our shared spaces so they are engaging, high-quality environments for our students and staff, and progressing planning and engagement for changes in the use of our space across campus.
6. Advance international agendas. This includes Mumbai, articulation partnerships and Joint Education Institute (JEI) initiatives, learning and refining as required.

I look forward to discussing these in more detail as I progress on my department visits. We are also planning how best to bring the new Strategy to you, so you can see it in action across campus. Thank you again for taking the time to share your feedback and ideas.

Ken

Ken Badcock
Interim Vice-Chancellor and President