Introduction

Click here to view DCU Strategic Plan Making a Difference 2010 - 2012

DCU’s last strategic plan, Leadership through Foresight (2005), declared that the university would contribute to Ireland’s social and economic success by promoting a culture of enterprise, calculated risk-taking, technological innovation, ethical awareness, social inclusion and cultural openness.

Since then, the national and global environment has changed beyond recognition. The period of long-term economic growth has come to an end, public funding for education is being cut, and the outlook for university graduates – while still good – is much less certain than it appeared to be three years ago.

But Ireland remains committed to the development of a knowledge society, the availability of significant numbers of people with advanced skills, and the right conditions for high value research and development. This is also the time when people are looking to innovation and radical new ideas to help solve the country’s problems and instil optimism and confidence.

Since the National Institute for Higher Education opened its doors in 1980 before becoming Dublin City University in 1989, we have been different from the rest of the higher education sector, and while cooperating constructively with our friends and partners in that sector have valued this difference. We believe that the time is right for DCU to assert its radical and innovative credentials, and to provide leadership and support through these challenging times.

Over the next three years, we expect that some important questions will be asked about higher education, including questions about how it should be structured and funded, and what level of differentiation and diversity would be appropriate. DCU needs to have clear and imaginative answers to these questions, and must develop and implement its strategy accordingly.

DCU will continue to place excellence at the heart of all its activities throughout this longer planning period. It will also continue to base its plans on a framework of partnership and collaboration, with all higher education institutions in Ireland as appropriate, and with a developing cluster of close strategic partners.

Ferdinand von Prondzynski
President

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Making a Difference 2010 - 2012

DCU’s last strategic plan, Leadership Through Foresight, was adopted in late 2005 and formally covered the period to the end of 2008.  During 2008 a new planning process was initiated. As in the case of the last plan, it was decided that the new strategy (to run to 2011) would at its core have a small number of focused strategic objectives.

At its meeting in Febtruary 2009, DCU’s Governing Authority approved the new strategy for the period 2009-2011. Following this approval, key strategic actions are being devised for each of the strategic objectives and will be added, before the whole plan is formally launched in May 2009.   The institutional strategic plan, and three of the component strategies listed below, cover the period 2009-2011. As the external environment is currently uncertain it was felt prudent to plan for a three-year period. However, this has been done within a context of longer term strategic aims and objectives, informed by DCU’s Foresight exercise (Managing our Destiny in Uncertain Times, DCU Foresight Report 2008). In the context of the objectives of the National Development Plan, there are also a number of strategic aims for DCU for the period up to 2014. In part these are contained in the Research Strategy and the Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Strategy.

As under the last strategic plan, the university-level strategy is complemented by a number of component strategies, these being:

• Research (2009-2014)
• Knowledge Transfer and Innovation (2009-2014)
• Enhancement of Learning (2009-2011)
• Civic Engagement (2009-2011)
• Internationalisation (2009-2011)
• DCU Strategy Planning Process 2010-2012