DCU’s five year strategic plan for 2023 - 2028 is the culmination of multiple strategy meetings between the University’s senior management and executive teams, engagement with numerous internal and external stakeholders, and Strategy Townhall meetings with DCU staff. 

Planning for DCU’s new strategy first got underway in the spring of 2022.

In total there were: 

• Eight senior management planning days
• 13 information & consultation sessions
• 1000 stakeholders were reached directly

The strategy will be delivered through 15 Component strategies.

The strategic plan that emerged consists of five pillars: 

• Pioneer a Transformative Student Experience
• Value and Develop our Staff and Community 
• Advance our Research Reputation and Impact
• Enhance Local and International Engagement
• Optimise Organisational Resilience and Readiness

These are underpinned by our four drivers: Collective Leadership; Innovation, Creativity & Enterprise (ICE); Sustainable Development; and Agility.

Our guiding philosophy is ‘People’, ‘Focus’ and ‘Impact’.

Our mission remains the same - to transform lives and societies - while our vision is to be a leading innovative European University distinguished by the quality of the DCU experience, and the impact of our teaching and research on our stakeholders and on issues of global concern. 

Strategy Townhalls - both in-person and online - took place in early January 2023, and were attended by hundreds of DCU staff. 

In keeping with the principles of sustainable development and ensuring that the strategic plan would be dynamic and flexible as well as being accessible to all, it was decided the strategy would live on dcu.ie. Here users will see ‘strategy in action’ and progress updates will be posted regularly. The site itself will be reviewed every quarter with new content added where deemed appropriate. 

While some information on the plan will be public facing, some points of information will be for internal stakeholders only.