How do societal changes affect the University of Tartu?

During the preparation of the new strategic plan, university members are invited to consider how societal trends affect the future of the university. In addition, feedback is sought on the areas where the university should make a leap forward to best serve society in the changing world. 

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Tõnu Esko, Vice Rector for Development at the University of Tartu and chair of the strategic planning committee, underlines that the opinion of each university member is important. “With the new strategic plan, we are setting the goal for the next ten years. Now it is the time for every staff member and student to take a moment to think about the future of the university to ensure our goal will be well thought out and clear,” said Esko.

Based on an analysis of trends carried out by the Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS), the committee formulated 16 trend bundles that will likely influence the university over the next decade. The impact of different trends on units may vary. This is why employees are invited to evaluate the trends and describe their potential impact on their unit.

There are questionnaires available for different target groups:

• for the staff of support units;
• for the staff of academic units;
• for students.

The questionnaires are open for completion until 13 October.  

Based on the proposals from the public gathering of ideas in the spring, the strategic planning committee and the discussion at the joint meeting of the university council and the senate, the preliminary descriptions of five possible focus areas for the new strategic plan have been formulated. After receiving the results of the questionnaires, all heads of structural units are invited to add to the proposed focus areas. “I encourage all heads of units to involve their colleagues in giving feedback. As nothing has been decided yet, you may propose topics that seem completely missing at the moment. Now is the moment for everyone to put forward their ideas,” said Esko.

After discussions in structural units, there will also be discussions in faculty councils, meetings of the heads of support units and institutions and in student union. The strategic planning committee will consider the evaluation of trends, additions to focus areas and proposals, and use them to draft the preliminary version of the new strategic plan.

A small number of strategic focus areas combining the objectives of the university members with the needs of the changing world will be selected for the new strategic plan for 2026–2035. The focus areas do not have to concentrate on individual research fields but on cross- and interdisciplinary themes.