Strategic Plan: Global thinking, worldwide influence

Heriot-Watt's vision is to be world-leading within all its specialist areas of science, technology, engineering and business.

Graduates and students before statue of James Watt

We remain true to our heritage of creating and exchanging knowledge for the benefit of society. Our record shows that our research and teaching have always been professionally relevant and we produce graduates who have a distinctive and strong professional orientation. The characteristics of global recognition and professional relevance are defining distinctions of the University and are considered the bedrock of this Strategic Plan 2013-18.

This is an ambitious strategy which shows our priorities for the next five years as we continue as a high performing, rapidly growing, financially sustainable university. We do this while exploiting the synergy between excellent teaching and research in a global and professional context. The single, most important aspect of the strategy is the recognition and emphasis that to achieve the overall vision will require all academic staff to perform at internationally competitive levels of creativity in research, scholarship and teaching as synergistic activities.

Research intensification

Research at Heriot-Watt spans the fundamental to the applied, through an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge creation and enterprise. We aim to:

  • Promote new interdisciplinary fields of research, emphasising economic and societal benefit in order to generate high impact outputs and attract significant research funding to increase critical mass;
  • Develop further strategic collaborations through national and international academic and industrial research alliances;
  • Take advantage of our international campuses and worldwide learning partnerships to extend research opportunities;
  • Facilitate research management through research-led institutes and interdisciplinary research centres, providing focus and identity to enhance research opportunities, performance and funding;
  • Support innovation and entrepreneurship in the creation of new enterprise; and
  • Increase the number of research students commensurate with an expanded research landscape. 

Learning, teaching and the student experience

We have a longstanding reputation for providing highly employable graduates, who have a distinctive, strong professional orientation. We aim to strengthen our graduates' attributes and skills further, through:

  • Enhanced approaches to teaching, learning and assessment;
  • Further development of facilities and support for the student learning and living experience; and
  • A continually updated, relevant, broad curriculum.

Internationalisation

Heriot-Watt is ‘Scotland's international university’ and is among the UK's top five universities in terms of its international presence and number of international students. We aim to:

  • Continue to grow rapidly all streams of international activity; 
  • Secure the success of the new Malaysian Campus; 
  • Enhance the internationalisation of research and knowledge exchange activities;
  • Ensure that Heriot-Watt University qualifications are recognised and respected internationally, providing entry to jobs worldwide; 
  • Facilitate international mobility for Heriot-Watt students and staff;
  • Provide a state-of the-art virtual learning environment (VLE), a “virtual campus”, supporting the needs of all Heriot-Watt students independent of location or mode of study; and
  • Support the development of Heriot-Watt as an international university with Scottish roots.