Discussions on the university’s new strategic plan continued at Pärnu College

On 17 and 18 September, heads of the university’s support units, members of the Rector’s Strategy Office, the vice rector for development, the director of administration and the academic secretary visited Pärnu College to discuss the new strategic plan and related issues.

At the college, Director Garri Raagmaa and Development Manager Gea Kammer welcomed their Tartu colleagues and made presentations focusing on the challenges and future opportunities of Pärnu College.

In his presentation, Garri Raagmaa reflected on the role of regional colleges in the region, underlining that only those rural areas and small towns that can educate the employees required in the region can grow. In other words, higher education institutions should be brought closer to regions that are experiencing workforce problems. This would also enable the development of local entrepreneurship with the help of the college. In particular, Raagmaa discussed how to motivate local businesses to cooperate with the regional college.

Viivika Vilja, leader of the KOBAR innovation centre and Community Manager at the Development Centre of Pärnu County, and Gea Kammer, Development Manager at the college, introduced the centre’s activities, plans and possibilities. The KOBAR cooperation platform brings together entrepreneurship, research, the public sector, civil society and the environment to make Pärnu County an even more attractive place to live, work and do business. The project directly contributes to increasing the visibility of the University of Tartu’s Pärnu College while also allowing more flexible organisation of the college students’ traineeship.

The presentation also discussed the idea of multiversitas, which means the pooling of interdisciplinary knowledge and the knowledge and skills of other higher education institutions and partners to provide needs-based curricula, continuing education courses and development support in the region.

This was followed by a discussion led by Vice Rector for Development Tõnu Esko about the new strategic plan of the University of Tartu, its structure and focus themes. The new strategic plan (A2035) will be drawn up for ten years, a period which includes the 400th anniversary of the founding of the University of Tartu. The vice rector for development introduced the action plans linked to the strategic plan and their implementation model, which all aim to ensure the high-level involvement of university members and the interconnection of the activities. The next step in the strategic planning process is the inclusion of faculties, institutes, institutions and support structures in formulating the focus themes for the strategic plan and assessing the societal trends concerning the university.

Taivo Raud, Head of the Rector’s Strategy Office, explained the principles for planning the university’s development fund for 2025. The goal of the development fund is to support the implementation of the strategic plan, primarily cross-faculty development activities. This means that faculties are mainly expected to submit large-scale applications for supporting the development needs of several faculties at the same time. The estimated size of the fund is €3–3.5 million. Members of the Rector’s Office will submit development fund applications to the rector by 15 October. 

Mihkel Tammo, Head of Entrepreneurship, presented a model they used after reorganising the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to prepare a schematic overview of its services and related processes. When dealing with specific projects, this model helps identify bottlenecks and the stage at which they arise.

Kristi Kuningas, Head of the Human Resources Office, gave an overview of the activities undertaken so far to ensure equal treatment and the plans for 2025. Based on the agreement made at the senate session on 30 August, senate members are forming a committee to review and improve the university’s current equal treatment guidelines and case handling procedures. In addition to implementing the committee’s proposals, the university plans to carry out an equal treatment survey among university members and work with the student union to develop a culture of awareness and intervention. Also, consideration will be given to whether it is necessary to draw up a separate guide for dealing with sexual harassment complaints besides the guidelines for equal treatment.