Methodology

A strategic plan represents a public commitment to action aimed at achieving set goals. A plan comprises three stages: production, performance and results.

Producing a strategic plan involves performing an assessment of the status quo (identifying the UIB of today), envisioning a future model for the university (the UIB we want) and defining a road map to enable us to move from the current situation to the desired outcome. Obviously, we need to be realistic: awareness of institutional resources and capabilities is essential, in addition to opportunities and threats, so as to establish feasible goals and activities focused on achieving them. -

 

  • Assessing the status quo: this involves identifying the UIB's mission and what underpins its purpose. Techniques similar to a SWOT analysis can be used (identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) to perform an internal and external analysis. We also need clearly defined indicators and figures to support the situational analysis
  • Envisioning the UIB of the future: this involves identifying the vision and values of the UIB that represent guiding principles underpinning all activities, and identifying and describing each main pillar for what the UIB of the future aims to be. The idea is to plot out a realistic and motivational course for the institution
  • Road map: this specifies a series of realistic and quantifiable objectives to be attained and shape us into the UIB of the future. In order to ensure that objectives do not merely remain the best of intentions, it is important to specify focused actions to be undertaken over the coming years to turn these objectives into a reality. In addition, specific measures should be defined in order to gauge success.

 

Strategic Plan Content

Mission

The UIB mission is a single sentence that clearly and concisely sets out the general objective and purpose of the university. It is tied to current reality.

Vision

The UIB vision is the ability to map out the institution's future. It is the inspirational text for the entire strategic plan, providing a sense of purpose and sketching out the university we aim to be. The statement must complement and align with a contextual overview: the Spanish university system, the strategy of the autonomous region, and national and European strategic plans. It also includes the perspective of different stakeholders.

Values

The institutional values are the UIB's guiding principles. All objectives and actions must be undertaken in line with these essential principles.

Strategic Pillars

The strategic plan road map is organised into pillars, at the highest level, which are then split across a matrix: vertical key and support pillars, and horizontal cross-cutting pillars that clearly plot their transverse nature.

 

  • Key pillars: these correspond to the inherent activities of the university and are split into four key pillars:
    • Teaching: this refers to anything related to teaching and learning processes on official undergraduate, master's and PhD programmes, as well as UIB-specific courses
    • Research: this refers to activities linked to research into new knowledge
    • Transfer and culture: these two activities refer to how new knowledge that emerges from research feeds back into society
  • Support pillars: these support key areas and are termed management pillars. They include any support for inherent activities at the university, including infrastructure and human resources management
  • Cross-cutting pillars: these pillars involve cross-cutting issues and are particularly significant for the university:
    • Social commitment: this includes all aspects pertaining to sustainability, cooperation, inclusion, employability and, in general, any social, student or academic activity
    • Institutional promotion: this includes the positioning of the institution, and its external and international promotion
    • Digitalisation: all objectives related to information and communication technology (ICT)
    • Good governance: this pillar includes all activities linked to best practice for governance, quality, communication and sound financial planning.

Strategic Goals

A series of strategic goals is set for each key and support pillar. They will not be the sole objectives at the institution; however, they will be the most important and, in a way, deemed a priority.

There is no pre-set number of goals per pillar. More importantly, they should be well-defined and realistic. The goals must be particularly well-drafted: clear, concise, specific, quantifiable, realistic and deadline-oriented. There must be a supervisor for each goal who sits on the Executive Council.

Each objective will be framed within a vertical key or support pillar, whilst also being linked to a horizontal cross-cutting pillar.

Indicators

The Strategic Plan must include performance indicators tied to each goal. These indicators enable us to monitor successful performance of the plan. It is important to have:

  • A clear, precise definition for the indicators with a calculation formula, where applicable
  • The real value of the indicator before starting the strategic plan
  • The final minimum expected value (or maximum, depending the indicator type) after implementation of the strategic plan.

Actions

This section specifies the actions to be performed so as to attain our goals. It involves managing the institutional project portfolio and each action must have:

  • An ID code
  • A name and description
  • The main pillar framing the action. The pillar supervisor will endorse the action. In any event, actions that may affect more than one pillar shall be identified for proper coordination
  • Action supervisor. As a general rule, this will be a service or unit. The action endorser will normally be the service head
  • Other services or units collaborating in the action
  • Action goals. All goals whose attainment will be affected by the action must be set out
  • Specific action indicators as they may not be exactly the same as the indicators in the strategic plan (e.g. an activity may well be necessary to attain our goals but not directly improve the plan indicators)
  • ICT requirements: if the action requires ICT, this should be identified and associated with the ICT project portfolio
  • Tentative timeline.