Delivering Strategy 2035
Strategy 2035
Driven by purpose, measured by impact.
Founded in 1821 as the Edinburgh School of Arts, Heriot-Watt was the world's first Mechanics Institute, with a founding mission to make education accessible and deliver tangible benefit to industry and society. Strategy 2035 builds on our strengths, bridging from Strategy 2025 to Strategy 2035, and sets out our purpose and direction for the decade ahead.
A distinctive University
- A Scottish University with global reach and an exceptional record for transnational education.
- A University which is values-led; a community with people at its heart.
- Characterised by an exceptional partnership with students and experience that is personal, local and global.
- Rooted in our heritage from 1821 in providing access to education.
- Focused on learning for employability and for success in life.
- Research that impacts real-world challenges and benefits society.
- We are thought leaders in sustainability, seeking to develop people who will lead in this area and make a difference in the world.
Research focused on real-world challenges
Our focus is on research excellence and impact on real-world challenges through our Global Research Institutes and fundamental research. We aim to be recognised among the world’s leading universities for research excellence and impact in areas ranging from Mathematics to Social Policy and from Carbon Solutions to Quantum and Photonics.
Excellence in research raises the University’s reputation, critical to attracting and retaining high quality staff and students. The University will be in the top 250 universities in the world.
Accessible, responsive and flexible portfolio
We will rigorously focus on access to applied learning for life and employability, developing a future-forward portfolio of programmes aligned to market needs that equip students with industry-relevant skills. We will optimise the benefits of our portfolio, including through advances in AI, to ensure we continue to be a leader in transnational education through both online and on-campus learning.
We will purposefully design and manage the portfolio with agile responses to changes in demand, meeting the requirements of our students and other stakeholders. We will build on our decades of experience in online delivery to significantly develop our Online Campus, increasing capacity to around 100,000 learners by 2035, and design it to meet the requirements of learners throughout their life and careers.
A signature student experience
We will deliver a signature Heriot-Watt student experience across all modes and locations of study. It is characterised by our values-led culture, strong student partnership, flexible and responsive education, our dynamic research environment, and our established global reach with opportunities to study locally and globally.
Our exceptional student experience with flexible and accessible provision is underpinned by ethos of employability.
How we will enable and drive our strategy
Through Strategy 2035 we will drive significant growth in our scale, reach and impact through on-campus and transnational activity via two main pathways, supported by three strategic enablers.
Two strategic growth pathways:
- The Online Campus - significantly growing online provision by 2035, through portfolio expansion, distribution at scale with partners, and innovation in products and formats including micro-credentials and short courses.
- Strategic and Intentional Partnerships - a new approach to academic, industry, civic and platform partnerships, designed to grow student numbers, open new distribution channels, and increase research income, impact and reputation.
Three strategic enablers - the core foundations, capabilities and resources that empower us to deliver on our ambitions:
- Governance Effectiveness and Operational Excellence
- Strategic and Intentional Approach to Partnerships
- Responsive, Accessible and Flexible Educational Offering
Our Ethos of Employability underpins our growth strategies and our purpose as Future Shapers. Through Strategy 2035 we will continue to be values-led, with people and the distinctive partnership with our students at the heart of our approach and decision making.