Global Strategy

Strategic priorities and areas of focus to 2025/26

Improve support, guidance and business development processes for partnerships

This will encompass:

• Three to four global, University-wide, strategic partnerships covering different continents;
• Agreement as to the different types of partnerships we should be developing to support different requirements – articulations, recognition, exchange, research collaborations and TNE provision; 
• A flexible quality assurance process with embedded due diligence and risk assessment; 
• Introducing simplified business development and business planning processes, ensuring that the cost/benefit of all partnerships is clear and embedded;
• Academic partnerships included within the CRM system and appropriate mapping for agreements.

Identify and cultivate strategic partnerships

We will identify the required staff and broader resource requirements for different types and sizes of strategic partnerships to maximise their impact and outcomes, with the aim of nurturing and developing these partnerships.  This will include identifying the ideal project team structure and complement given the type of partnership. 

Inherent within this is the need to determine the financial implications and viability of setting up and supporting each type of strategic partnership.

Improve engagement and relationship management for all partnerships

The University has a range of partnerships – articulations, progression and recognition, placement arrangements, learning/teaching support, franchised and validated provision, split PhDs, research collaborations and staff and student mobility (exchanges and study abroad). We will develop a plan for engagement and relationship management with our partners that is tailored to the nature of the partnership including whether it is University-wide or Faculty specific. We will build on existing policies and procedures to ensure a consistency of approach across all our partnerships. 

Manage international student recruitment while improving the international student experience, progression and outcomes

A three-year International Recruitment plan, with an annual review, will be developed to deliver on the University’s international student targets, while managing the balance between home and international student numbers and the risk of overdependence on the international student market. This will include:

• Ensuring an integrated and connected recruitment process across central and Faculty teams;
• Improving the applicant lifecycle experience for our international applicants;
• Covering current markets and potential new markets;
• Enhancing our engagement with agents to support international recruitment;
• Establishment of further regional presence to align with our ambition of becoming carbon positive and to expand our global reach;
• Collaboration with ICP/Navitas to enhance our representation and recruitment in key markets and agreeing a strategy of managing student recruitment and market/country coverage;
• Different market offerings to provide the diversity of students and income stream;
• Continuing to improve the quality of the student intake and their outcomes;
• Offsetting the continued decline in EU student numbers;
• Growing the study abroad and summer school (incoming) markets;
• Improved roll-out of the University’s English Language test to enable us to be competitive;
• Offsetting of carbon from our recruitment activities in support of our sustainability commitments; 
• Further refinement of tuition fees and scholarships to support international recruitment activities;
• Increasing our international PGR student population.

Ensure international support is in proportion to international student numbers and meets their holistic needs

• Continued improvement of our University-wide English Language in-sessional support provision;
• In line with our Education Strategy commitments, we will improve our central and Faculty-based student services structures to provide the bespoke and tailored support and engagement needed for the well-being and academic development of our increasing international student population via both online and on campus support; 
• Promoting activities to ensure belonging and integration of our international students into the life of our University and its communities;
• Providing opportunities to international students in terms of skills and cultural awareness for their integration including mentoring, language exchanges, and student voice;
• Enhancing pre-orientation and online material to support our international students prior to arrival;
• Monitoring and improvement of the international student experience, retention, progression and outcomes in line with the Education Strategy through both internal student evaluation such as course surveys and external benchmarking such as the NSS and Student Barometer. 

Support implementation of the Education Strategy to develop a course portfolio that is attractive to international markets

Working in collaboration with those responsible for our Education Strategy to ensure that market intelligence informs the development and updating of course offerings at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This will feed into the portfolio and curriculum review that will be undertaken in particular with regards to our postgraduate offering. This will include:

• Providing market intelligence on trends and demand in the international markets;
• Undertaking regular surveys and monitoring of datasets to ensure our offering is attractive to our current and future students;
• Working with Faculties and Schools for the development of appropriate courses relevant to the international student market working in conjunction with the other strategies in particular the Education Strategy to ensure a joined-up approach to course development and improvement;
• Introducing different and flexible course starts and potentially summer school provision in Portsmouth;
• Exploration of the popularity of compact/fast track undergraduate programmes for the international market;
• Exploration of the potential of January start one-year undergraduate top up programmes for international students;
• Engaging with our alumni to ensure that we have the connectivity to the relevant key markets for our recruitment and the interface with the support they can provide to returning graduates.

Development of an ecosystem of opportunities for our students to develop their global mindsets outside the UK

• Ensuring placements, internships and work experience can be undertaken abroad and developing partnerships and links with employers to provide such opportunities;
• Promoting volunteering including working with summer camps in the US and Europe;
• Supporting field trips for relevant courses and how this can be reflected in the development of global mindset, promoting intersectionality between curriculum and global mindsets along with environmental and sustainability as its focus;
• Promoting opportunities for English Language teaching abroad;
• Expanding student exchanges and study abroad across five continents with a target of doubling the student exchange numbers from the baseline in 2019/20;
• Expansion of (and reinstatement of existing) outgoing summer schools to increase the provision from three to six summer schools to include Latin America, Middle East and Europe by 2023/24;
• Obtaining external funding wherever possible to support these global opportunities, e.g. Turing Scheme to ensure they are financially viable and accessible to our students. 

Develop additional opportunities within the UK and the University for students to develop their global mindsets

• Increasing the activities for global engagement on campus – doubling existing activity which includes Global Week, Orientation and Induction, Sports and Student Societies events, National Day celebrations;
• Working with national groups within Portsmouth to provide links with the different country groups represented in the city e.g.  Chinese, Ghanaian, Nigerian, Bangladeshi and other community groups. 
• Increasing the range of opportunities for students to develop their language skills including peer support via the Language Café;
• Support from Estates and Campus Services to ensure that the particular needs of international students, including community building, are incorporated into the estates masterplan;
• Increasing opportunities for virtual exchanges and collaboration on projects with TNE and exchange partners that students can work on virtually, including events such as Global Goal Jams, Buddy Scheme and shared studios portals; 
• Developing opportunities to invite partner institutions and their students to work with us on events in Portsmouth and the region;
• Extending opportunities with employers seeking to expand internationally;
• Promoting mentorship/buddy programmes between home and international students. 

Introduce a global mindsets development plan for our people

• Development of cultural awareness for our people, using Train the Trainer programmes such as Systemic University Change Towards Internationalisation (SUCTI) and embedding this into induction and ongoing training; 
• Encouraging both academic and professional staff to explore opportunities abroad supported through external bursaries and external grant bids for these purposes;
• Encouraging and supporting our people to learn from international engagement opportunities including recruitment activities, partnership visits and collaborative research;
• Providing opportunities to learn a language through the Institution Wide Language Programme. 

In addition, we will seek to develop a community of experts within the University on global engagement and international partnerships. This will entail the following:

• Developing the global engagement leads and staff in the faculties such as the Associate Heads (Global Engagement), Global support teams and exchange coordinators into a community together with the University’s Global team where best practice is shared and training and updates are provided on a regular basis;
• Development and implementation of an integrated staff development programme for our central and Faculty global engagement staff focused on the four strategic priorities of the Global Strategy;
• Ensuring regular and interactive dialogue between the faculties and global/regional teams to share market intelligence and knowledge, including interaction with ICP/Navitas;
• Ensuring that the community of experts is externally networked and connected to develop their own knowledge, expertise and connections in a global world. 

4. Be known globally for excellence 

Our global reputation will develop, reflecting our focus on excellence in all our activities, including the quality of our global education and research initiatives. We will attract international talent through our recruitment of students and staff who want to be part of our success.

Develop and champion initiatives that will contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• Identifying the relevant SDGs for the University to focus on (e.g. SDG 3, 4, 5, 10, 13, 14, 16 and 17) to engage in the shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet in support of our vision, and improve our position in the THE Impact Rankings;
• Working with the relevant research areas and themes, schools and professional services to improve the University’s position with regards to these SDGs, where this supports our overall Strategy and priorities;
• Engaging with students and UPSU to ensure students are integrated in this project through a range of engagement opportunities;
• Promoting and communicating our commitment and focus on our targeted approach towards the SDGs to improve our global reputation. 

Support implementation of the Research and Innovation Strategy to improve international aspects of collaborative research 

• Supporting Research and Innovation leads to identify appropriate global research networks and consortia that will reinforce our global and R&I ambitions;
• Working with governments and embassies to leverage research and research collaboration in their home countries;
• Working with sector bodies and stakeholders such as the British Council, UUK and others to capitalise on opportunities emerging in different markets and countries;
• Continue to expand the split PhD programme to broaden our global reach and develop capacity building programmes in relevant markets to ensure a future pipeline of collaboration and collaborative research.

Continue expansion of our global operations and our alumni presence to improve our reach and reputation

• Increasing our regional presence from eight different counties/locations to 10 by 2023 and 12 by 2025. This increased global presence to support our recruitment, placement activities, alumni activities and partnership development and support;
• Improving alumni engagement and development to ensure that our alumni continue to be ambassadors for our University and that we improve our reputation through our alumni network; 
• Increasing the number of alumni chapters globally from the current three to eight by 2025;
• Supporting the faculties to increase and improve engagement of the alumni chapters to support their external accreditation work;
• Establishing a development programme to source additional funding to support our international student mobility in the future through our alumni and development work.

Contribute to the City of Portsmouth’s international engagement to build the international reputation of the City and the University

• Contributing to international engagement led by the City of Portsmouth to build relationships with twin and sister cities at city council, business, community and University level;
• Supporting the City Council’s work in establishing a new sister/twin city arrangement with Halifax, Canada and to ensure this aligns with our partnership development arrangements in Halifax and Canada;
• Working with the City Council to identify, support and work with other potential twin/sister arrangements;
• Working with relevant community groups in the city where this aligns with our University’s plans for those communities.