The University of Strathclyde’s purpose is built around delivering
- Outstanding Education & Student Experience
- World-Leading Research
- Transformative Innovation & Impact
In that delivery, our Values reflect who we are and help us to navigate on the journey, demonstrating what we believe in and what we stand for.
We are
- People-oriented
- Innovative
- Collaborative
- Ambitious
- Bold
In all we do, Strathclyde is committed to putting our people first – students, staff and partners – and to ensuring that our University is a place of belonging and wellbeing where individual and collective successes are achieved through the support provided for one another.
Our tradition and identity - innovative and entrepreneurial - also inspire our programme of change at pace towards 2030. We will begin a programme of process and systems enhancement, examining and improving how our University operates and how our staff and students can be even better supported to succeed.
Our socially progressive ethos shapes our approach to social and environmental sustainability. This includes both the impact of our academic work through our research, education, and collaboration with other sectors, and the impact of our activities as a large international institution based in Glasgow.
One of the characteristics of our University in its recent past, and one of the characteristics that will remain vital, is agility. By being nimble - prepared and able to move quickly and confidently to address and make value from the change around us - our University can continue to fulfil its purpose and be successful.
Over the past 15 years, the Strathclyde community has worked together to create a platform for sustained achievement, building delivery on a clear, values-led, strategy. Over the period of the next strategy, Strathclyde 2030, that focus on values-led excellence and impact will continue, and we will deliver ongoing success that we all contribute to and can celebrate.
Distinctive Strathclyde
Read more about how we are solving societal challenges and using digital innovation.
18th Century
Founded by John Anderson in 1796 to be 'a place of useful learning'.
This makes Strathclyde the 8th oldest higher education institution to be founded in the UK and the only one founded in the Enlightenment period.
19th Century
Anderson's Institution renamed Anderson's University in 1828.
Anderson's University renamed the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College in 1887.
As well as our origins in Anderson's institution, our Faculty of Business has its origins in the Glasgow Athenaeum.
20th Century
University of Strathclyde founded following receipt of our Royal Charter and merger with the Scottish College of Commerce in 1964.
This is a period of growth and cooperation for the organisations that will merge to become the University of Strathclyde.
21st Century
Strathclyde becomes the only University to win the Times Higher University of the Year twice - in 2012 and 2019.
We are the only Scottish University to improve our position in REF from 2008 through both the 2014 and 2021 REF cycles.
In September 2023, we are named Scottish University of the Year, Daily Mail University of the Year Awards 2024
Our values
Our goals
Strathclyde 2030
Our vision
A leading international technological university, inspired by its founding mission, that is socially progressive and makes a positive difference to the lives of its students, to society and to the world.
Our mission
From our foundation as the place of useful learning, we take it as our responsibility to research, teach and be of benefit to society – to reach outside the University to make the world better-educated, sustainable, prosperous, healthy, fair and secure.
Our purpose, goals & priorities
Central to our strategic plan is our pursuit of excellence in the three key elements of our institutional purpose: education, research, and impact. These core elements form the basis for our goals for delivering:
- Outstanding Education & Student Experience
- World Leading Research
- Transformative Innovation & Impact
Additionally, we have two cross-cutting goals which support and enable the delivery of our purpose:
Together, these five goals remain unchanged from our previous strategic plan and will be extended and developed in the period to 2030. Achieving our goals will be supported by these key priorities:
- People First
- Social & Environmental Sustainability
- Process, Systems & Digital
People First
Our socially progressive and values-led approach shapes how we work together. Our collective efforts deliver greater positive impact on the world around us. We each play a role in delivering this impact, and our People Strategy is a key enabler for supporting all of us to succeed as an inclusive and diverse Strathclyde community.
We are already demonstrating how working together with a common purpose delivers success.
This means that we will enable everyone in the Strathclyde community to contribute to the delivery of our 2030 strategy, whilst also ensuring that Strathclyde is a great place to work. We do this through being an inclusive and welcoming community, providing an outstanding employee experience, sustaining a supportive and thriving environment for all that enables wellbeing, and through authentic, diverse and effective leadership.
Strathclyde 2030 reaffirms our commitment to each other and our aim to develop our approach to people, ensuring we remain amongst the very best places to work in Scotland.
Social & Environmental Sustainability
Strathclyde makes a positive contribution locally and globally. To extend this, we will further embed sustainability in all we do, academically and operationally.
We build upon a strong track record which includes: our research and innovation contributions to national and international technology and policy developments to achieve Net Zero; the establishment of the Centre for Sustainable Development; our work on student-led Vertically Integrated Projects; and our collaborative work with Glasgow City and the wider region.
We will continue to build capacity to deliver sustainable solutions for our University and society.
We will implement our Sustainability and Social Impact Strategy, which shapes our approach to lifelong learning and world leading research that address sustainable development and social impact.
Process, Systems & Digital
We will develop and deliver a comprehensive, inclusive, systems-led transformation of service delivery that strengthens and sustains excellence across all areas of the University. As a result, we will ensure we are highly effective, efficient, digitally enabled and fit for the future.
Our Digital Strategy sets out how the innovative and ambitious use of digital technology, together with its transformative capability for our people, processes, systems and data, can support our institutional ambitions for 2030 and beyond.
Our Digital Strategy will support the development and application of digital technologies in our research, learning, and operational environments. Technology will enable excellence in these domains by supporting our people to innovate how we generate new knowledge, how we share this knowledge, and how we collaborate with each other, and with partners in Scotland and across the world.
The transformative potential of digital technology will change how we work to deliver our mission and vision.