Dear colleagues,
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of you who, over these past weeks, have engaged with the staff consultation exercise on the development of our draft Strathclyde 2030 strategic plan, which has now closed.
Whether you have participated in one of the many engagement events and focus groups, or provided your thoughts and feedback via the consultation webpages, your input will be used to update and strengthen the draft strategic plan that will be presented to our Court for review and approval later this year.
As I have said before, the success of our great University is down to the knowledge, skills and commitment of our staff. Your comments, contributions and ideas for the next stage in our exciting journey together have been invaluable and greatly appreciated.
With this in mind, I would like to remind you that nominations are still open for our Strathclyde Medals which recognise colleagues who have excelled in demonstrating our Values of being people-oriented, innovative, collaborative, ambitious and bold.
These Values describe ‘how things are done’ at Strathclyde and underpin how we treat others, how we expect to be treated and how we make decisions.
All awardees are nominated by team mates, colleagues and those that want to acknowledge the Values-led approach each recipient demonstrates.
This year we are asking for nominations for people who have demonstrated excellence in the Values, within themed categories, including:
- Impact from innovation (technology, productivity, operational excellence, equality, diversity and inclusion);
- Contribution to a culture of inclusiveness;
- Outstanding colleague;
- Student experience;
- Demonstration of commitment to sustainability; and
- Contribution to a culture of wellbeing.
Nominations for the 2023 awards can be made until 9 June using the online nomination form and winners will be presented with their Medals at an in-person ceremony on 17 November.
Next week, on Wednesday 31 May, I look forward to welcoming the first school pupils who will be graduating from our new ‘Young Strathclyder’ programme.
The first pilot year of this initiative, which replaces our previous involvement in the Glasgow Children’s University, has seen 404 Primary 6 pupils and 417 Primary 7 pupils from 10 schools from across the city take part in a full day of participation in engaging and interactive activities, either on campus or at school.
Staff from across our four Faculties have worked together with our Access, Equality & Inclusion Service to design these interactive activities while third-year Business School students, participating in our Management Development Programme Social Responsibility Pathway, worked on the branding for the Programme and designed business activities for pupils to complete.
Pupils were led through these activities by 87 student mentors, many of whom come from widening access backgrounds and have been the first in their family to go to university.
These activities have aimed to help young people – and their parents and carers – build a sense of belonging and confidence within a Higher Education setting and to maintain a focus on their post-school goals by providing advice and guidance on subject choices and career opportunities.
As a socially-progressive institution committed to playing a key role in our local community, I look forward to these young people continuing to engage with Strathclyde over the coming years.
Our Summer Graduations too are only a matter of weeks away, and colleagues in the Conferencing and Events Team are looking for volunteers to help out at the ceremonies in June.
Roles include acting as a briefer, handing out degree parchments and helping to organise the academic procession onto the stage.
Participation in these joyful events – the highlight of the academic year – is hugely rewarding. You can read more about this and sign up to volunteer in this week’s edition of Inside Strathclyde.
With the recent data breach at the USS pension scheme which has affected University staff from across the UK, I would like to strongly encourage colleagues to undertake our mandatory cybersecurity training which helps us all take appropriate steps to protect the University’s systems and data.
This training helps to you identify cybersecurity threats and how to deal with them. You can find out more details and undertake the training on the website.
Enjoy the rest of the week and have a good long weekend and holiday Monday when it comes.
Best wishes,
Jim