When people talk about the University of Sydney in 2032, what will they say? What will we be known for?
Our commitment to our common mission generates a strong sense of unity across the University: we work together to bring our energy and focus to the value our work can bring to the world.
When people talk about the University of Sydney in 10 years, we want it to be about the extraordinary power of our world-class research and teaching to transform people’s lives, and the pride that it generates in our city, our state and our nation.
Our commitment to our common mission generates a strong sense of unity across the University: we work together to bring our energy and focus to the value our work can bring to the world.
Our student-centered education is transformational
We will be Australia’s best university for teaching and learning. Our students will attest to the transformational impact an education in Sydney has on their lives, whenever and wherever they learn.
- Define, support and reward excellence and evidence-based innovation for teachers and education teams.
- Better understand our students by leveraging academic research, data and insights to drive an educational experience that is transformational for our learners and sustainable for the institution.
- Make partnership the key to our training offers.
- Become a sought-after provider of dynamic lifelong learning.
- Our teachers meet expectations of academic excellence at every stage of their careers, and we celebrate their achievements as visibly as high performance in research.
- We partner to create highly valued and respected lifelong learning opportunities in response to the changing needs of society.
- Our programs are both learner-centered and sustainable.
- No matter where or how they learn, our students are confident in their abilities, are sure of their personal goals and feel like they belong.
Our community thrives on diversity
Social equity is at the heart of our past and our future. By 2032, our community will be more diverse and inclusive, helping us all shape a positive future.
- Engage in pathways that ensure success for a greater diversity of students in Sydney.
- Increase the diversity of our workforce and our shared appreciation of how diversity enhances everything we do.
- Reaffirm our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion across the University.
- We embrace equity, diversity and inclusion as essential elements of our success, and our students and staff reflect the communities we serve.
- We demonstrate our ability to identify and support a full range of students from diverse backgrounds to thrive at the University.
Our research is excellent, meets the greatest challenges and contributes to the common good
By 2032, our diverse and inclusive university community will be recognized globally for discovering new knowledge and delivering solutions that benefit everyone.
- Foster a culture where our HDR students and scholars can excel, engage and make an impact.
- Set expectations for performance and innovation through an academic excellence framework, and support and reward individual and team excellence.
- Focus investments on research with an excellent track record or the greatest potential to achieve excellence.
- Leverage our comprehensiveness and partnerships to foster multidisciplinary problem solving.
- Our diverse research community meets clearly defined expectations of academic excellence at every career stage.
- Our excellence is evident in the national and global reach of our research partnerships, the diversity and scale of our financial support, and the translation of our research findings into measurable benefits to society.
A better place to work and a place that works better
To meet our aspirations to be among the world’s leading universities for research and education, we must lay the strongest foundations that allow our people to thrive and excel.
We want all of our employees to feel connected to the University as a place where they can succeed and which values their contributions, whether they are on the Sydney campus, at one of our sites across New Wales of the South, or whether they are working or studying online. We want them to value collective success as the best way to achieve their individual ambitions.
Wherever we gather, we do our best
By 2032, we will attract the best talent and allow it to flourish. Our shared ambitions mean that the best research and education happens on all our campuses, thanks to our international connections and in increasingly digital fields.
- Transform the work experience at the University of Sydney by focusing on excellence in how we attract and invest in our people.
- Ensure that our places – current and future, physical and digital – are inviting for all and enable success.
- We attract the most talented academic and professional staff and provide an environment where they can thrive.
- Wherever our people gather, our inclusive culture and our digital and physical spaces enable excellence and are inviting for all.
We lead with great confidence and responsibility to deliver high performance
To achieve our ambitious educational and research goals, we need strong and trusting relationships across all areas of the University.
- Placing trust and responsibility at the heart of our values.
- Accept and integrate the characteristic attributes of leadership in the Sydney context.
- Streamline and delegate decision-making, ensure accountability and effective governance, reduce red tape.
- We are very collegial, respectful and value our culture of trust and accountability.
- We make decisions at the right level, we value peer review and transparency, and we act on what we have learned from past decisions.
- Our leaders at all levels feel supported, empowered and equipped to build high-performing teams and make good decisions.
Our policies, processes, systems and services help us achieve our ambitions
By 2032, we will have reduced the complexity of our organization so that our policies, processes, systems and services support us well. The effectiveness – and excellence – of our research, teaching, learning and student experience will be at the forefront.
- Prioritize the needs of students and staff when designing policies, systems, processes and services that reflect and integrate our values.
- Deliver transformational change that is user-centered, insight-driven, pragmatic, and clearly understood.
- Embrace simplicity, benchmarking and rich data to ensure continuous improvement in the way we work and deliver services.
- Our staff, students and partners attest that our policies, processes and systems help them perform at their best.
- Our employees feel that their experience and ideas are valued when we update or introduce new processes, systems or services.
We are considered exceptional partners
The most complex problems require a partnership to provide solutions. By 2032, we will still be great partners and people will seek us out as their partner of choice in our local, national and international communities.
- Create a culture that values how partnership enhances the quality and impact of our teaching and research.
- Keep our partnership promises.
- Build new, lasting partnerships to achieve common goals.
- Organizations and individuals want to work with us, champion and fund our work, and witness that we are a partner of choice because of the quality of our work, our openness to new ideas, and the mutually beneficial nature of our partnerships.
- The ability to create lasting partnerships is valued and rewarded in our community, and we view partnerships as essential to our long-term success.