15 August 2013
Five year strategic action plan released
Just seven months after his appointment as University of South Australia Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd has released an action plan for the next five years that will see the appointment of 100 new professors.
Launching the strategic action plan, Crossing the Horizon, Prof Lloyd says all organisations need talented leaders who inspire creativity and enterprise.
“In the university context, professors play an invaluable role in leading both research and innovation and teaching and curriculum development at the highest levels,” he says.
“Over the next five years we will appoint 100 new professors in areas of key disciplinary strength and in line with our research themes.
“In meeting this goal we’ll be building UniSA’s capacity to deliver one of Australia’s best higher education learning environments.”
Crossing the Horizon also has a strong focus on experiential education with a push to engage more leaders in the professions as practitioners-in-residence and adjunct staff of the university.
The plan also includes actions to appoint more industry and professional leaders on all of its expert advisory boards to provide input into curriculum development and research priorities.
“We have to focus on real-world outcomes for our students and for society. To do that, we must ensure that our content and practice are informed by first-hand experience of what is happening on the ground - in health, in business, in government, in the environment and in the professions,” Prof Lloyd says.
“That knowledge is invaluable in preparing our students to become successful graduates – work aware and job ready. That relevance will underpin our position as Australia’s university of enterprise.”
The plan includes seven separate action sets and a range of priorities for immediate and progressive action.
They focus on the student experience of university; research and curriculum; improved efficiencies and investment in staff; infrastructure; engagement with society both locally and internationally; and administrative and cultural changes that will support the plan.
Professor Lloyd says the action plan serves as a guide for UniSA’s institutional ambitions.
“Our planning process started with one of the widest open consultations ever held by a university in Australia when we ran the online forum unijam – the world’s first crowd sourced strategic planning process in a university context. We had 18000 inputs from nearly 8000 participants and those ideas have informed and shaped our plan,” Prof Lloyd says.
“We have a shared blueprint for what we can achieve together in the next five years.
“My goal through this plan is to build our reputation as an institution that is innovative, engaged and enterprising.”
You can read the full strategic action plan, Crossing the Horizon, online.
Media contact: Michèle Nardelli office: 08 8302 0966 mobile: 0418 823 673 email: Michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
