SOLENT STRATEGY 2035

We are proud to share our strategy for the next decade, in which we outline our mission and vision and present three new strategic directions for the University.

It is an honour to be leading Southampton Solent University as we celebrate our 20th anniversary as a university. While our roots in the city span over a century, we are a relatively young institution, and the coming decade offers an opportunity to redefine and shape our organisational identity.

We have achieved much since the development of our last Strategy in 2020, and we have done so in a uniquely turbulent period for the higher education sector, our society, and the world. The changes we have made have provided us with strong foundations to build on with confidence, ensuring our continued success in the future.

This strategy outlines where we aspire to be by 2035.

Southampton Solent will be the leading practice-led university in the country. To achieve this, we must innovate and evolve. To guide our progress, we present in this strategy three new innovative directions developed in partnership with our students, staff, alumni, and external stakeholders. These directions to success build on the excellent work we are already doing – not least the delivery of high-quality learning and teaching, as well as excellent student outcomes as recognised by our triple gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (2023).

The thread that ties these new directions together is access to excellence. Just as our TEF gold rating shows how we drive excellent opportunities and outcomes, so our new vision envisages how we will create radical openness to excellence. We will open Southampton Solent to; learners at different stages of their lives; our communities; our partners; and, to the world. Our new campus vision proposes to open the University to the widest range of communities and stakeholders, enacting these principles.

In developing our strategy, we analysed the external contexts that we will face over the next decade, including shifting demographics and the challenge of financial sustainability, climate change, rapid technological and digital transformation, and pervasive global instability. These challenges are complex, interrelated, and unpredictable and they will shape our future and that of our graduating students. But we will also look to our institutional heritage of creativity and technology, and our institutional culture of innovation and inclusion to tackle these issues.

As we deliver this strategy, we must be prepared to transform the university, its education, and its culture, to meet these challenges, while also seizing all opportunities to ensure that our students, our alumni, our partners, and our city-region not only adapt to these futures, but also thrive in them.

Professor James Knowles, FRSA
Vice-Chancellor