Global reach
Strategy 2035
Driven by purpose, measured by impact.
Heriot-Watt is currently in the top 10 UK distance learning providers, and the 4th largest UK provider of postgraduate distance education, with fully integrated campuses in Dubai and Malaysia and high quality academic partnerships. Through Strategy 2035 we will drive significant growth in our scale, reach and impact through on-campus and transnational activity.
Development of our Online Campus
Our Online Campus will respond to an urgent market need: empowering individuals and organisations to adapt, thrive and innovate in the face of rapid change. We will build on our decades of experience in online delivery, increasing capacity to around 100,000 learners by 2035. By 2035, our Online Campus will have achieved transformational growth and be recognised globally for its leadership in expanding access to flexible, career-aligned online learning through a scalable, innovative and sustainable model. We will drive strategic growth through three core approaches:
- Portfolio expansion - expanding undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, micro-credentials and executive education for lifelong upskilling and reskilling.
- Distribution at scale with partners - partnering boldly to distribute globally at scale.
- Innovation into new products and formats - creating new products and formats to increase our reach and engage broader audiences, including Continuous Professional Development.
How we will support this growth
We will develop:
- Robust, adaptable digital infrastructure, including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Learning Management Systems;
- Dedicated academic resources driving portfolio development and ensuring that we maintain the quality and standards which are critical to our reputation;
- A commercially-minded, specialised professional services team; and
- A portfolio of partners providing routes to market and the ability to scale at pace.
We will invest in the soft infrastructure and pedagogical skills required to design and deliver courses and stackable micro-credentials to meet the expected shift in balance of part-time to full-time students over the ten-year lifetime of Strategy 2035.
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On-campus growth and our global campus network
Our campuses in Scotland, Dubai and Malaysia give students and partners a genuinely international footprint, built around student mobility, global teaching teams and real cross-border collaboration. Growth in student numbers is planned to come primarily through the Dubai and Malaysia campuses, as well as through significant, intentional and at-scale partnerships, while we maintain the number of students at our Scottish campuses. Our Global College provides access to higher education to a wide range of learners from diverse learning backgrounds.
