Strategy
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Introduction
Over the past ten years, Norwich University of the Arts has successfully delivered on its mission and is now poised for the future, with the delivery of an ambitious new Strategy. We have a strong portfolio of courses, a remarkable city campus at the heart of the creative quarter of Norwich, and an authentic and caring creative community of staff and students.
Vision
Ambitious and committed to the extraordinary creativity of our staff and students, over the next five years Norwich University of the Arts will become the place where the debate about the future of creativity and creative arts education is most passionately engaged.
This debate is vital because the world is changing fast and facing many challenges, with creative practitioners playing an essential role in understanding and interpreting what is happening and imagining and producing better ways of living in the future.
The debate will take many critical and creative forms, informing all our actions; from running the University to developing our portfolio of courses, to the work produced by our staff and students, the stakeholders we engage, and the opportunities we enable for our graduates
Gigi Soh
Fashion Communication and Promotion
2021
Mission
Lauren Purnell
Film and Moving Image Production
2020
In support of this debate, we will create a culture that supports all our staff and students in their intellectual, creative and personal growth, mindful that their health and wellbeing is at the core of our project and the delivery of our ambitions.
Students will continue to join an authentic and human-scale creative community, which recognises and celebrates the knowledge and experience they choose to share and bring to their learning and creative practice.
Our community will be caring, challenging and radical – recognising the importance of innovation and risk, and the possibility of failure as a pre-condition for the creation of new work, ideas, ambitions, and futures.
We value hard work, making things, engaging with established and emerging technologies, mutual respect, and having fun.
Our collective experience and commitment will inculcate graduates with a sense of confidence in their education, skills, critical creativity, and their futures as reflective professionals and practitioners in any field.
Students will choose to join the University because they recognise all of this about us, and trust that we will enable them to achieve in their personal and working lives what they can’t always fully imagine.
All of this can only happen in Norwich; its radical history, its inspiring culture and institutions, its enterprising spirit, and its beauty are not the backdrop but the very material of our model of creative education – we must engage with all the city has to offer because learning is experiential and can happen in unexpected ways.
We will make a difference to the future of Norwich and the wider region, working with civil society and industry partners on ambitious development projects, recognising the links between global challenges and local experiences.
At the core of our mission is a belief that diversity in all its forms - national, cultural, socio-economic, political, sexual, physical, neurological, and experiential - is the very heart of creative endeavour, enabling us to debate with one another, see the world differently, and create new possibilities for a more equal and sustainable future.
Change
None of this makes us complacent and we need to change. Over the next five years we will:
Extend our world view and welcome more international students and staff to our community.
Commit ourselves to the role of creative practice in identifying, understanding and addressing the climate crisis and global challenges.
Embed ambitious local and international industry projects and experiences within all our courses.
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Global
Demonstrate that all forms of science, technology and business require creativity, so diversify our partnerships and stretch the disciplinary boundary of the University.
Lead on substantial projects that will develop the creative sector and industries in Norwich and its wider region.
Maintain strong links and partnerships with creative and other sectors, supporting our graduates in securing great jobs and developing their careers.
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Partnerships
As partners and activists in their education journey, graduate with energy and confidence, knowing how to activate change and transformation, for themselves and for their communities; shaping the worlds in which they live, the enterprises they establish and the places where they work.
Form a network across the world, located in many kinds of organisations, using their Norwich experience to make interventions and a significant contribution and difference, time and time again.
Recognise that they know how to continue their creative journey, learning and re-learning as they go, judging when they should return to the University for further support or education.
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Our Graduates Will:
We will engage our staff and student community in the development and delivery of this Strategy.
We will create an academic structure that can deliver this Strategy, with greater recognition of disciplinary distinction and transdisciplinary opportunities, adding science and technology courses into our portfolio.
Our commitment to critical creative practice, research and knowledge exchange will move to the core of our mission, including the establishment of two influential research and knowledge exchange institutes.
Our delivery will bring together on-site and digitally augmented forms of learning, defining what ‘hybrid delivery’ means for us, whilst also developing courses that are delivered entirely online.
A new vision for postgraduate provision will move us from entirely linear degrees to the inclusion of modular CPD provision.
We will internationalise our community of staff and students.
As we grow and develop, we will ensure our investment in staff, structures, physical and digital resources keep pace with our ambitions and the delivery of this Strategy.
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Journeys
Flora Platt
Photography
2020
Ensure that the critical creative practice, knowledge exchange and research of our staff is at the centre of the University’s development, forging the possibilities and potential for our students.
Assert that disciplinary knowledge and experience is essential for interdisciplinary practice and learning.
Develop a model for the delivery of our current and future courses with the right balance of on-site and online for our students and staff.
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Delivery
Be fully engaged in the ongoing debate about the future of the University, know that their contribution to our mission is celebrated, and feel a sense of pride in our students and the work they produce.
Feel empowered to make a positive and creative contribution and difference to the work of the University.
Develop personally and in their roles, flexibly balancing their professional and personal lives, realising their potential within the University or in other organisations.
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Our Staff Will:
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You can view this page in plain text if you would prefer. The NUA University Strategy 2022-2027 is also available as an accessible PDF download.
The development of this Strategy was supported by Sarah Snoxall and Kathy Oldridge at Barnstorm, who designed a programme of creative consultation that enabled broad and deep engagement across the University - www.barnstorm.group
This strategy document was designed by Jana Giles, who graduated from our Design for Publishing course in 2020, and is now a freelance Editorial Designer – www.janagilesstudio.com
Campus photography: Joakim Boren –www.joakimboren.com
Additional photography: Chris Roberts, Photography 2020 – www.chris-roberts.com