Dear colleagues,
Earlier this week, I was delighted to host the Strathclyde Medals ceremony, the first time we have enjoyed an in-person celebration of those colleagues that characterise the University’s values since 2019.
The Medals ceremony is an annual highlight for me and many others, and it was a great pleasure to formally recognise some of our outstanding members of staff and celebrate with colleagues and guests of the medal winners.
At the event in The Barony, I was delighted to present awards to 14 individuals, 10 teams and deliver four Principal’s Special awards. Each award is in recognition of their outstanding contribution and commitment to exemplifying the Strathclyde values.
I would like to congratulate all of the medal winners once again. Please look out for a full list of winners and details of their awards in next Tuesday’s edition of Inside Strathclyde.
Also this week, on World Mental Health Day, we launched the Strathclyde Wellbeing Map, an online resource created by Strathclyde and StrathUnion colleagues. Students can use this online tool to see where they can access on-campus support services and information regarding their wellbeing.
Collating this information in one place makes it easier for our students to find the support available.
The health, safety and wellbeing of the Strathclyde community is at the heart of everything we do and this is an important development in helping the student body understand that we are here to offer friendly, non-judgemental and confidential wellbeing support.
At our October Leadership Group meeting, yesterday, colleagues made a valuable contribution to the development of our next Strategic Plan.
The session allowed Leadership Group members to collectively focus on the next phase of Strathclyde’s journey as a leading international technological University that is committed to its socially progressive mission.
We enjoyed a lively and diverse conversation where we explored a number of our key ambitions and significant challenges.
We will develop our Strategic Plan consultation activities over the coming months as we continue to map out Strathclyde’s direction to 2030. Departments, schools and directorates will all have a chance to contribute and collaborate in the process and I look forward to sharing more information soon.
Finally, I am delighted to see that our return-to-campus activities continue to increase at pace. On Saturday, we hosted an incredibly successful undergraduate Open Day, despite the challenges of a national rail strike.
More than 4,500 prospective students, parents and guardians visited campus to find out more about the difference that Strathclyde can make to their futures. I offer my thanks to those members of staff who made the day so successful and thank you to everyone – staff and students alike – who volunteered to work at the weekend.
And yesterday, we hosted the Scottish Graduate Fair in TIC. This event is the biggest graduate, postgraduate and internship recruitment event in Scotland and it attracted around 2,000 students and graduates of all disciplines and a variety of high-quality graduate employers and postgraduate recruiters, many of them partners of the University.
Both events are great examples of values-led teamwork across the faculties and professional services teams.
Enjoy the rest of the week and have a good weekend when it comes.
Best wishes,
Jim