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www.qmul.ac.uk

STRATEGICPLAN2010-15

QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

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The Queen Mary Objective

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Foreword by the Chairman of Council, Sir Nicholas Montagu

Introduction by the Principal,Professor Simon Gaskell I. Knowledge creation

II. Knowledge dissemination

III. Fundamentalcommitments and enabling strategies

Implementation and Review

Contents

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Queen Mary, University of London will build on itsdistinctive position as a leading research-based highereducation institution with a strong commitment toengagement in its London location, to be fullyestablished by 2015 within the top ten universities in the UK on the basis of objective and widely respected criteria.

We will achieve this through:

The highest standards of research, as judged by internationalcomparators, in a broad range of subject areas

The provision of the finest possible education to ourundergraduate and postgraduate students, located both within and outside the UK

Commitment to the idea of the university as a community of scholars, mutually supportive and working both to furtherknowledge creation and benefit wider society.

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The Queen MaryObjective

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ForewordChairman of Council, Sir Nicholas Montagu

Universities face unparalleled challenges as they strive to maintain and improve onstandards of excellence in research andteaching at a time when funding constraintsare both tighter and more unpredictable thanever before. This makes it the more essentialto identify the key priorities and tasks that willhelp them to achieve their aims, as well ascriteria for measuring their achievement.

A plan with targets so soft that it is in effecta self-fulfilling prophecy is pointless. So, too,is one where the aspirations and aims areso lofty as to be remote from any realisticprospect of success. The plan in thisdocument avoids both those pitfalls.Building on Queen Mary’s already strongposition among the UK’s leading research-intensive universities, it sets out anambitious vision over the next five years

for a constantly improving process ofknowledge creation and dissemination,together with the values and supportingactivities that are critical to success. Thatvision is attainable, but will require a highlevel of commitment and determination tomake it a reality. We are lucky to have thosequalities in abundance among our staff.

One consequence of the constraintsmentioned above is that universities willneed to be increasingly imaginative andactive in looking to fund their developmentfrom sources outside government. QueenMary is no exception, and this imperative is reflected in the strategic plan. It is to be hoped that government in turn willrecognise the greater independence thatthis brings by reducing the monitoring andchecking that have grown over the years

and which themselves have an appreciableoverhead for universities and colleges.

A key function of the Council is to hold thePrincipal and his team to account for thedelivery of their major objectives. Changeswhich we have made to the College’sgovernance will provide a more sharply-focused framework of accountabilities within which we can do this. Our otherfundamental job is to support the executiveteam by contributing to the discussion andformation of the strategies that will take theCollege to new heights. This plan embodiesthose strategies: Council shares thedetermination to make them a reality.

Nick Montagu

This document sets out Queen Mary, University of London’s strategy for the comingyears. It has been drawn up by the Principal and his senior team, and the Council, as the College’s governing body, wholeheartedly endorses it.

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Introduction Principal, Professor Simon Gaskell

The Queen Mary Strategic Plan, 2010-15takes as its starting point the very considerableachievements during the period of theprevious plan (2006-10). Under thestewardship of Professor Adrian Smith(Principal, 1998-2008) and Professor PhilipOgden (Acting Principal, 2008-09), QueenMary increased the size of its student bodyfrom approximately 13,500 to more than16,500, with expansion of its academicbreadth to include (for example) a majorexpansion of Drama, the establishment ofthe School of Business and Management,and new initiatives in Medicine.

The stature of the institution as a centre of broadly based research excellenceimproved dramatically: the increase inranking by research quality from 48th in 2001 to 11th in the 2008 ResearchAssessment Exercise led to the descriptionof Queen Mary as “the biggest star amongstthe research-intensive institutions” (TimesHigher Education, 18 December 2008).First-place subject rankings were achievedin Geography and Linguistics, with severalother second places; the Barts and TheLondon School of Medicine and Dentistryranked first amongst London medicalschools and fourth nationally.

The period of the last strategic plan alsosaw the transformation of the Mile Endcampus into an educational precinct ofexceptional quality, characterised both by

functionality and architectural distinction.Developments on our other campuses,such as the Blizard Building at Whitechapel,confirmed the Queen Mary commitment todistinctive facilities of the highest quality.International initiatives have flourished,including a major joint programme with the Beijing University of Posts andTelecommunications.

We enter the period of the new StrategicPlan with the sobering knowledge that theseyears will be characterised by pressures onUK public funding greater than experiencedin decades. Meanwhile the expectations of students and other stakeholders willjustifiably increase. The institutions that farebest in the coming few years will be thosethat remain determinedly strategic andspecifically retain the capability to continueinvesting in those areas characterised on a rational basis as being of the highestimportance.

In developing our strategic imperatives, weare guided by the ideal – unchanged forcenturies – of a university as a centre for thedevelopment of fundamental ideas and theexpansion of the boundaries of knowledge,independent of political and other transientopinions. We are conscious also that ourobligations to international, national andlocal communities require our adherence to a set of underlying values and acommitment to the twin aims of knowledge

creation and knowledge dissemination –truly a Twenty-First Century interpretation of the university ideal.

Accordingly, this Strategic Plan is organisedinto sections that cover Knowledge Creation,Knowledge Dissemination, and FundamentalCommitments and Enabling Strategies.Each section includes ambitious andquantifiable objectives that will allow bothQueen Mary and others to judge ourprogress. Internally, the extent of ourachievement will be monitored each yearthrough the Planning and AccountabilityReviews of each Faculty and of theAdministration and Professional SupportServices, and through the Annual Stocktaketo be reported to Queen Mary Council.

Our confidence in setting these highambitions – particularly in a period wherethe external environment is far from benign– and our success in meeting these targetsdepend entirely on the contributions of allmembers of the Queen Mary community –students, staff, alumni, Council membersand other supporters and friends. With thatsupport, our overall objective to be firmlyestablished within the top ten research-based universities in the UK, whileambitious, is eminently achievable.

Simon Gaskell

A Strategic Plan represents an expression of ambition, of collective commitment toprogress in defined directions. It builds upon past achievements, notes currentchallenges, and defines stretching but realistic objectives.

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Knowledge creation

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Queen Mary has an increasing reputationfor the quality of its research, as judged bya number of indicators. National rankingsof research performance such as the UKResearch Assessment Exercise (RAE)provide indications of both research qualityand research power (the product of qualityand volume). In the 2008 RAE, QueenMary was ranked in the top decile (11th or 13th position, depending on the preciseranking methodology) on the basis ofresearch quality, representing a markedimprovement since the 2001 RAE. Inseveral disciplines, Queen Mary achievedquality rankings in the top five. Notably, amarkedly higher performance in researchquality than research power was recordedin several units of assessment; thissuggests (though other considerations also apply) that new investment in theseareas is merited.

In league tables that attempt to makeinternational comparisons, Queen Mary wasranked at 164 in the 2009 Times HigherEducation world education table and withinthe 152-200 bracket of the Shanghai JiaoTong world universities index.

Other measures provide indirect evidenceof research quality. For example, on thebasis of the number of post-doctoralresearch associates, relative to the number

of academic staff, Queen Mary ranks 20th in the UK. Data for the number ofsuccessful PhD students per academicstaff member, however, suggest thatsubstantial progress is required to reachthe point where the magnitude of theQueen Mary research postgraduateprogramme matches the quality of the research performed.

Success in research is determined in part by the ability of the institution, itscomponent parts, and its academicresearchers to raise substantial funds tosupport that research, commonly throughhighly competitive processes. Thus,success in attracting funding provides auseful proxy for research quality. QueenMary has seen a steady increase inresearch grant and contract income overthe period 2006-9. A third of total incometo Queen Mary in 2008-9 was associatedwith research. Research funding allocatedfrom the Higher Education Funding Councilfor England for 2009-10 showed thatQueen Mary overall was ranked in the topdecile according to funding per academicstaff member. Performance according tothis measure is highly variable across theCollege, however, and significantimprovement is required to substantiateQueen Mary’s position in the very top rank of UK research-led institutions.

The Queen Mary research enterprise – knowledge creation – is notable for its academicbreadth, ranging from human medicine through the life and physical sciences, andengineering, to the social sciences, arts and humanities. The intellectual rangerepresented by this research activity enriches all parts of the Queen Mary community.

Enabling Strategies (financial,infrastructure, support)

Strategic Aim IKnowledge Creation(research, development

of researchers)

Strategic Aim IIKnowledge

Dissemination(education, engagement,

commercialisation)

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Strategic Aim 1To contribute to the body of human knowledge by performingresearch that is judged to be uniformly of international qualityand that includes contributions that are internationallyleading. This research will be both within and acrosstraditional academic disciplines and will, in sum, representcontributions across a broad intellectual spectrum, includingmedicine and dentistry, the life and physical sciences,mathematics, engineering and technology, the socialsciences, and the arts and humanities.

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With respect to research quality:• maintaining a commitment to conductresearch across a broad intellectualspectrum that encompasses humanmedicine, the life and physical sciences,engineering, social sciences, arts andhumanities

• notwithstanding this commitment tobreadth, identifying and investingselectively in areas of research strength,noting that these may transcendtraditional academic disciplines

• fostering research activities in areas (suchas the life sciences, the digital economy,etc.) that cross Faculty and School divisions

• improving internal communicationchannels to encourage and facilitatecollaborative research

• increasing our research power (qualitytimes volume) in those areas where theRAE 2008 revealed a markeddiscrepancy between a high qualityranking and a low power ranking

• ensuring that the recruitment ofacademic staff with researchresponsibilities focuses exclusively on those with a record of exceptionalachievement or with extraordinarypotential

• extending our network of internationalcollaborations, recognising that the mostproductive research interactions are thoseestablished by the individuals directlyconcerned

• increasing the proportion of our researchoutput that is delivered via mechanismsof high impact, such as publication in themost prestigious journals

The objectives andtargets outlined here forQueen Mary as a wholeare supplemented bydetail provided in theindividual strategicplans of the Barts andThe London School of Medicine andDentistry, the Faculty of Humanities andSocial Sciences, and the Faculty of Scienceand Engineering.

We will achieve this aim by adopting the following approaches:

With respect to research funding:• increasing our external research grantand contract funding per academic staffmember, thereby increasing theproportion of academic salary costscovered in this way

• developing a diverse portfolio of researchfunding that:

- shows increased success in competingfor research funding from the UKResearch Councils

- reduces our proportional dependenceon sources of funding associated withthe UK public purse

- expands our programme of researchfunded through the European Union

- shows increased success in obtainingresearch funding from charitablefoundations

• developing key strategic relationships withresearch partners in industry, commerceand the third sector

• improving the efficiency of the conduct ofour research, and increasing theproportion of the true costs of researchcovered by external grants and contracts

With respect to the development ofresearchers and research students:• supporting our academics as researchersby providing appropriate trainingopportunities, and by ensuring theeffectiveness of personal mentoring and of annual reviews of academiccontributions

• increasing the number of post-doctoralresearchers (both in total and peracademic staff member), includingindependently funded research fellows

• continuing our commitment to theprinciples enunciated in the Concordat to Support the Development of YoungResearchers, including post-doctoralfellows and research assistants

• increasing substantially both the numberof postgraduate research students, andthe proportion who successfully completethe PhD degree in a timely manner

• continuing to develop the breadth and depth of education provided topostgraduate research students, with theexpectation that this will be associatedwith an increased proportion engaged in a four-year programme

• encouraging researchers to engage withorganisations associated with research, its funding, policy and strategy

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Key Performance Indicator

SA1.1 Overall ranking in the next UK assessment of research quality andresearch power

SA1.2 University rankingsreported by independentorganisations

SA1.3 External recognition of research outputs

SA1.4 Research grant and contract income

SA1.5 Diversity of sources of research income

SA1.6 Appointment of new academic staff withexceptional researchrecords and potential

SA1.7 Improved researchperformance of all staff with a responsibility toconduct research

SA1.8 Size of the cohort of early career researchers

SA1.9 Recruitment ofindependently fundedresearch fellows

SA1.10 Size and quality of graduate researchstudent programme

Target

- Ranking within the top 10 broadly based UK universities,according to research quality, and within the top 20according to research power

- Placement within the 100-150 group in the Shanghai JiaoTong Academic Ranking of World Universities by 2015

- Placement within the 100-150 group of the Times HigherEducation ranking of world universities by 2015

- Increased proportion of research publications in high-impact journals and other media, as judged by discipline-specific criteria

- Annual increases consistent with achievement by 2015 of anaverage income per academic ranked within the top 10 of UKuniversities for this metric

- Total research income increased by 50 per cent by 2015

- Steady increase in the proportion of research income fromsources other than the UK public purse, leading to aproportion greater than 50 per cent by 2015

- progressive increase in EU funding, leading to a doublingby 2015

- year-on-year increase in proportion of research income from industry and commerce (UK and overseas), to 12 per cent by 2015

- increased proportion of staff performing internationallyleading research, as judged by annual internal assessments

- submission rate to the next UK assessment exceeding 90per cent of eligible staff

- Year-on-year increase in the number of post-doctoral researchassistants consistent with an increase of 50 per cent by 2015

- Annual increases leading to a total of at least 50 by 2015

- Increase in the number of students registered for the PhDdegree, leading to a doubling by 2015

- Achievement by 2015 of an 85 per cent submission rate for PhDdegrees within four-years of the start of a standard programme (orequivalent deadline for extended and part-time programmes)

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Knowledge dissemination

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Here our objectives are clear, namely:

• to attract excellent students• to ensure a consistent and high qualitylearning experience in every discipline

• to produce graduates equipped forpersonal and professional success

The period of the last Strategic Plan (2006-10)saw a major increase in the enrolment of UKstudents at Queen Mary. The focus in thecoming years will be on the improvement of the entry qualifications of the UK studentbody, together with an expansion ofrecruitment of non-UK students, consistentwith the objective of recruiting the mosttalented students regardless of origin.

Queen Mary is now firmly positioned withinthe top decile of UK universities with respectto the quality of its research, as revealed bythe 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.External measures of student satisfactionhave suggested that research-intensiveuniversities frequently also offer the bestexperience for the most talented students.Queen Mary is thus now very well placed toimplement an ambitious educational strategyand to aspire to be in the top 10 per cent of universities in National Student Surveyleague tables by 2015.

By this date we also aspire to be in the topdecile of universities for tariff points on entryof UK students while sustaining our strongcommitment to widening participation to allthose UK and international students who can benefit from the Queen Mary studentexperience. Queen Mary has recentlydeveloped a Graduate Attributes frameworkthat describes a set of attributes that weexpect our undergraduate and postgraduatetaught students to possess on graduation;pursuit of these objectives will directlyimprove the quality of the Queen Marylearning experience.

The objectives of Queen Mary in theeducation of research students have beencovered in the last section because of theclose relationship with the knowledgecreation process itself.

The Queen Mary commitment to educationof the highest quality is, and should continueto be, met in part through collaborativeprovision. Current ventures includecontributions to the University of LondonInternational Programme (formerly theExternal System), programmes presentedthrough the University of London Institute in Paris, and the joint programme with the Beijing University of Posts andTelecommunications in which the enrolment now approaches 2000. We expectto expand such international collaborations in educational provision.

The commitment to knowledge disseminationthrough education includes also the provisionof high-quality courses to cohorts of studentswishing to expand their skills at post-graduate level without seeking to acquireMasters or PhD qualifications. A major recentexample of the commitment to research-informed professional education andknowledge dissemination is the Queen Mary-led Health Innovation and EducationCluster for North East London, North Central London and Essex.

Queen Mary is committed also to contributeto the enhancement of broader educationprovision in its community of the City andEast of London, and of the Thames Gateway.Recent initiatives include partnerships withthe Drapers’ Company in sponsoring anAcademy in Harold Hill, Romford, andbecoming lead partner in the St Paul’s Way Trust School in Tower Hamlets.

Knowledge dissemination also involves theapplication of research findings and skills tosocial and economic advantage. Queen Maryhas a strong record of such disseminationthrough activities such as the Mile EndGroup, People’s Palace Projects, Centre ofthe Cell, Computer Science for Fun (CS4FN)and our Legal Advice Centre.

With regard to commercialisation of researchoutcomes, there is again a record of success,notably the recent sale of Apatech, a world-leading company in orthobiologics, that wasspun out of Queen Mary in 2001. QueenMary is committed to expanded activity inthis area, operating through its subsidiary,Queen Mary Innovation Ltd – includinginvention disclosures, licensing andconsultancy agreements, and formation of spin-out companies.

Knowledge dissemination represents the second and equally important fundamentalpurpose of the true university. It includes – but is not limited to – the education ofstudents at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

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Strategic Aim 2To disseminate knowledge through the presentation of inspirational and authoritative teaching programmes to a diverse constituency of talented undergraduate and postgraduate students; through the delivery ofbespoke professional courses at postgraduate level; by the translation of the outcomes of our research to the benefit of our society and economy; by publicengagement with our academic expertise; and by providing leadership in areas of public interest.

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1. Making available the highest qualityundergraduate education to the mosttalented students, through:• provision of discipline-specificunderstanding and skills

• promotion of intellectual breadth

• promotion of core values ofcitizenship, in local, national and international contexts

• application of innovative educationalmethods and materials

• development of agreed graduateattributes

• programmes that will:

- be designed for the most talentedstudents in their respective subjects

- be fully informed by recent research,performed within Queen Mary andelsewhere

- embed diverse mechanisms ofprogramme delivery, notably e-learning

- embrace, where appropriate, jointworking with international partners – few in number but substantial insignificance

- prepare students explicitly for theprofessional and personal challengesthat they will face after graduation

We will achieve this aim by:

2. Providing outstanding taughtpostgraduate education to outstanding students, in order to:• equip them to pursue careersrequiring more specialist andadvanced skills than achieved at first degree level

• satisfy the requirements of individualsseeking to advance their skills tomatch the demands of their currentoccupations: this will require theestablishment of close relationshipswith organisations in the private, public and third sectors

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3. Ensuring the rigorous monitoring andassessment of taught programmes(undergraduate and postgraduate), by:• central collection and analysis of datafrom students' evaluations of modules

• embedding the Queen Mary ‘Indicators of Teaching Performance’ in allprobationary, mentoring and promotion processes

4. Contributing to the broader educationalobjectives of the City and East of London,and the Thames Gateway, by:• providing educational leadership toimprove aspiration and ambitiousattainment in London schools andcolleges and to enrich the learningexperience of their students

• creating a high public profile for ourresearch and other activities, includingprovision of a programme of publicevents, both alone and in co-operationwith partner institutions

5. Disseminating the outcomes of QueenMary research via:• provision of strategic and policy advice to organisations in the public, private and third sectors

• public engagement programmes

• contributions to the electronic, writtenand broadcast media

• coordinated provision of professionalcourses at postgraduate level toindividuals, companies and otherorganisations

• capture of commercially exploitableresearch outputs in line withdeveloping industry requirements,enabling development, commerciallicensing and company creation

• creation and development of spin-outcompanies to generate economicimpact and financial returns

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Key Performance Indicator

SA2.1 Enhancement in the entrancequalifications of students admitted toundergraduate programmes

SA2.2 Improvement in studentsatisfaction as judged by the rankingin the UK National Student Survey(NSS) and the International StudentBarometer

SA2.3 Expansion in the numbers ofstudents undertaking taughtpostgraduate courses in selected areas

SA2.4 Expansion in the number ofstudents from outside the EU admittedto study at Queen Mary, notably atpostgraduate level

SA2.5 Proportion of taught programmeswith a substantial e-learning component

SA2.6 Number of undergraduatestudents taught on programmes based outside the UK

SA2.7 Number of students takingcourses at Queen Mary in ‘StudyAbroad’ or equivalent programmes

SA2.8 Expanded provision of professionalcourses at postgraduate level

SA2.9 Disclosure of inventions arisingfrom Queen Mary research

SA2.10 Financial support ofcommercialisation of research

SA2.11 Growth in portfolio of income-generating technology license agreements

SA2.12 Creation of spinout companies

SA2.13 Expansion in consultancy income

Target

- placement in the top decile of UKuniversities, by 2015, with respect to entry qualifications of admitted students

- annual improvement to achieve a positionwithin the top decile of UK universities(overall and in individual subjects) by 2015

- top by these measures among London-basedinstitutions

- doubling by 2015

- doubling by 2015

- 100 per cent within three years

- increase of 30 per cent by 2015

- doubling fee paying students by 2015

- increase annual income generated throughprofessional education to £3M by 2015

- year-on-year increase in inventions disclosedby research staff to Queen Mary Innovation Ltd.

- increase in annual translational researchfunding to support development andcommercialisation of research outcomes, to £1.5M by 2015

- generate £0.5M and 25 licenses per annumby 2015

- identify and establish at least one newspinout company per year.

- increase consultancy income to £6.2M perannum by 2015

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Fundamental commitments

and enabling strategies

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Queen Mary is committed to serve society –the local community, the nation, and thecommunity of nations. Since their inception,the present Queen Mary and its predecessorinstitutions have been associated both withthe quest for high academic standards andwith the development of social capital, to thebenefit of students, staff, and the widercommunity.

There is no contradiction between adetermination to be counted amongst the top rank of international research-leduniversities and a commitment to thewellbeing and advancement of our localcommunity. Indeed, both are manifestationsof the twin objectives of the Twenty-FirstCentury university as knowledge creator and knowledge disseminator. Queen Mary is replete with examples of this compatibility.

Queen Mary’s commitment to social justiceincludes the assurance that its terms andconditions of employment and the services it purchases will be compliant with theLondon Living Wage.

Queen Mary is conscious of the commitmentit makes to the members of the College, bothstudents and staff. The engagement of allmembers of the Queen Mary community is essential in the planning and execution of common goals. Equally, Queen Maryaccepts responsibility for the health, well-being, and personal and professionaladvancement of students and staff alike,requiring the establishment andmaintenance of both physical and socialinfrastructures. Queen Mary is committed toensuring that all members of its communityare confident that the realisation of personalpotential is in no way restricted by race,religion, gender or sexual orientation.

Freedom of expression within the lawconstitutes an underpinning value,recognising that this most fundamentalattribute of the true university is tested not by

acceptance of mildly eccentric opinions butby the acknowledgement of views that, whilelegal and not antithetical to personal rights,might be considered distasteful to some.

The commitment of Queen Mary to thehighest standards of knowledge creation and dissemination, and adherence tofundamental principles concerning its role in society, can be met only if the financialhealth of the institution is assured. Soundfinancial management and a recent recordof academic success allow Queen Mary to enter the present period of financialuncertainty with a level of confidenceunmatched by many UK higher educationinstitutions. Investment in the Estate over thelast fifteen years has provided Queen Marywith campuses that are in many respects of enviable quality. Nevertheless, carefulfinancial planning and both an expansionand a diversification of sources of incomewill be essential to enable:

• selective investment in new academicventures, following rigorous evaluation

• enhanced administrative and professionalsupport to optimise the environment forlearning and research

• replacement or refurbishment of existingfacilities that are inadequate or imperfect

• maintenance of the quality of recentlyconstructed buildings

• enhancement of other aspects of the physical infrastructure, notablyinformation technologies

Queen Mary has a record of productiveworking with other higher educationinstitutions (for example, within theUniversity of London) and we will build onthis history in approaching the challengesassociated with a difficult financial climate.

Queen Mary is committed to the university ideal as a centre for the development of fundamental ideas,independent of political and other transient opinions.

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Enabling Aim 1To nurture a culture at Queen Mary amongst staff andstudents that is mutually supportive, committed to thedevelopment of its individual members, and mindful of itsobligations to the local region, to the community of nationsand needs of mankind and the environment.

We will achieve this aim by:

• provision of counselling and otherservices to ensure the well-being of all students

• establishing transparent procedures for the reward of staff through clearpromotion criteria that recognise a diversity of contributions to the success of Queen Mary

• ensuring adherence to the higheststandards in preserving the health and safety of students, staff and visitors

• maintaining and demonstrating acommitment to freedom of expressionwithin the law

• enabling channels of communicationthrough which staff and students mayaddress key issues and influence Queen Mary policy

1. The support of staff and students, by:• ensuring the recruitment of staff andstudents solely on the basis of theirability to benefit from, and contributeto, the Queen Mary community,regardless of race, religion, sex, sexualorientation, disability, or the legalexpression of political and other views

• support of the student body through the Queen Mary Students’ Union and its subsidiary groups

• commitment to the support andintegration of international students as an essential component of the diverse Queen Mary community

• maintaining a programme of career and personal support for all staff,including annual assessment of eachindividual’s contributions to the success of Queen Mary

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2. Commitment to activities in the support ofthe local community and wider society, by: • ensuring adherence to the highestethical standards in all aspects ofQueen Mary’s work

• imbuing the teaching curriculum with an understanding of ethical values

• signing the Talloires Declaration1

to commit Queen Mary to establishprogrammes of sustainability andawareness of environmental issues

• promoting the engagement of studentsand staff in voluntary activityparticularly in support of localcommunities in the East of Londonand within the Thames Gateway area

• working with partners in support oflocal schools and their pupils, notablythe Drapers’ Academy and the StPaul’s Way Trust School, in order tocontribute to enhanced educationalstandards and to encourageprogression to higher education

• establishing Queen Mary as a recognisedleader amongst London’s research-focused higher education institutions in the fields of the arts and culture

• extending our formal partnerships withperformance and other arts organisationsin order to promote cultural activitieswithin our local communities.

• engaging with the London OrganisingCommittee of the Olympic Games andthe Olympic Park Legacy Company toestablish a continuing role for QueenMary in the 2012 Olympic andParalympic Games and their legacy that is consistent with Queen Mary’sknowledge creation and disseminationobjectives

1 see www.ulsf.org/programs_talloires_td.html

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Key Performance Indicator

EA1.1 Effective monitoring of ethnic and gender balance in staff and student populations

EA1.2 High levels of satisfaction of UKand International Students, as judged bythe National Student Survey and theInternational Student Barometer

EA1.3 Effective monitoring of successrates in staff promotions showing anabsence of bias based on characteristicsnot relevant to the performance of duties

EA1.4 Participation in staff careerdevelopment programmes

EA1.5 Staff satisfaction survey results

EA1.6 Formal collaborations with partnerarts and cultural organisations,including the delivery of joint events

EA1.7 Numbers of Queen Mary studentsundertaking work in local communitysettings

EA1.8 Participation by staff and studentvolunteers in the Olympic andParalympic Games

EA1.9 Reducing the carbon footprint of Queen Mary operations

Target

- robust monitoring system in place,embedded within the annual Planning and Accountability Review

- annual improvement to achieve aposition within the top decile of UKuniversities (overall and in individualsubjects) by 2015

- top by these measures among London-based institutions

- robust monitoring system in place,embedded within the annual Planning and Accountability Review

- 100 per cent completion ofPostgraduate Certificate in AcademicPractice for eligible probationaryacademic staff

- Year-by-year increase in engagementby early career researchers andpostgraduate students in careerdevelopment and generic skillsprogrammes (towards 75 per cent by 2015)

- achievement of overall levels ofsatisfaction of working at Queen Marycomparable or superior to thoseachieved in similar institutions

- three major new collaborations in place by2012, with further expansion thereafter

- 50 per cent increase by 2015,recorded by the Queen Mary Students’Union Volunteering Co-ordinator andthe Careers Service

- 1000 student and staff volunteers

- to have achieved 30 per cent of the2020 carbon reduction plan by 2015

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Enabling Aim 2To maintain selective investment in the academicenterprise, the estate and infrastructure for teaching and research: this will be achieved by prudent financialmanagement, successful raising of funds from diversesources, and strict adherence to strategic planning.

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• sound management associated with clarityof financial authority and responsibility

• embedding a value-for-money approach inthe evaluation of all existing and proposedexpenditure

• regular assessment of the efficiency andeffectiveness of administrative and supportfunctions, and of their distribution betweenthe central and distributed administration

• maintaining an infrastructure of buildings,equipment and support mechanisms of a quality comparable to the best in theworld in selected areas of research focus

• strategic focusing of available funds onacademic areas that are of the highestquality and importance

• exploring opportunities for the coverage oftransactional aspects of the administrationthrough shared services with other institutions

• rigorous assessment of development andinvestment proposals based on detailedassessments of true costs and anticipatedfinancial, as well as academic, returns

• development of a sophisticated alumninetwork, including comprehensive recordsand a programme of activities to maintainand nurture contacts

• taking measured and well-calibrated stepsto develop Queen Mary’s capability toraise funds from philanthropic sources for the support of students and ofresearch activities

We will achieve this aim by:

Key Performance Indicator

EA2.1 Achievement of annual operatingsurpluses to allow (i) maintenance of the quality of the existing estate andinfrastructure, and (ii) investment in new academic initiatives, majorrefurbishments or new building

EA2.2 Containment of staff costs as a proportion of total turnover

EA2.3 Reduction of financialdependence on the Higher EducationFunding Council for England (HEFCE)

EA2.4 Year-on-year increases in incomederived from donations in support ofQueen Mary’s educational and researchactivities (including those made by alumni)

EA2.5 Continuing development of the IT infrastructure to optimise:- administrative functions - electronic communication- e-learning- processing and storage of research data- value for money

EA2.6 Continued development of theQueen Mary Estate

Target

- by 2015, generate a minimum of £16M cash per annum fromoperations, for investment purposes

- staff costs as a proportion of turnoverwill not increase, notwithstandingincreased research income

- within the context of continuingincreases in income (See SA1.4, 1.5,2.4, 2.7, 2.8, 2.11, 2.13), recurrentHEFCE funds to represent no more than30 per cent of total income by 2015

- annual total of £7M by 2015

- annually increasing levels ofsatisfaction in the IT infrastructurereflected in surveys of staff andstudent opinion

- levels of accommodation in need ofcategory C and D repair reduced to below 10 per cent by 2015

- development consistent with theachievement of Strategic Aims 1 and 2

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Implementation and Review

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• Planning and Accountability Reviews- Annual Planning and Accountability Reviews (PARs) for the threeFaculties and for the Administration and Professional Support Services.It is anticipated that this process will be mirrored within the Faculties –through implementation of School/Institute PARs – and within theAdministration and Professional Support Services – throughDirectorate PARs.

• Annual Assessment of Progress towards Strategic Goals- An annual stocktake of achievement and performance againstQueen Mary KPIs; this will conducted by the Queen Mary SeniorExecutive and will form the basis of a report to Council, fordiscussion at the annual residential Planning Conference.

The Aims and Key Performance Indicators included in the Queen Mary Strategic Plan will inform the development of subsidiary Plans for each Faculty. Cross-cutting strategicPlans, including those relating to the activities of the Administration and ProfessionalSupport Services, will support the achievement of the objectives set out in the QueenMary and subsidiary Plans.

Regular and critical review of progress is essential to the effective implementation of the Strategic Plan. The following mechanisms will be employed:

QMUL Strategic Plan

Science and EngineeringFaculty Strategic Plan

Humanities and Social SciencesFaculty Strategic Plan

Barts and The LondonSMD Strategic Plan

Teaching and Learning

Research

International and External Affairs

Human Resources

Equality and Diversity

Finance

Estates

Information Technologies

Library

www.qmul.ac.uk

Queen Mary, University of LondonMile End RoadLondon E1 4NS

For further information, please contactemail: qmplan@qmul.ac.uk

Pub6763The information given in this publication is

correct at the time of going to press. The College reserves the right to modify or

cancel any statement in it and accepts no responsibility for the consequences

of any such changes.