An excerpt from page 1
The Refresh
UTAS’ catchily titled Strategic Plan 2024 Strategic Refresh has been floating round UTAS for some months, without yet having been finalised.
I am uncertain what the exact relationship of the document is to the University of Tasmania Strategic Plan 2019-2024 – and whether it is meant to supersede it or create a platform for a new Strategic Plan.
I will make a few observations, but otherwise leave readers to form their own views of the document (I welcome comments below).
The document totally fails to identify, let alone address, the increasing brain drain of Tasmanian students to other universities – see my post Tasmania’s brain drain – UTAS continues to fail Tasmania where it matters most.
The document includes few hard edged performance measures against which the performance of UTAS Council or senior management can be assessed or held accountable.
- In this it differs from the University of Tasmania Strategic Plan 2019-2024, which included several pages (36-42) focusing on Key Performance Indicators.
- The time horizon of the document is generally 2050, with a few references to 2030.
There is no attempt to directly relate the strategy to the key functions of UTAS as set out in section 6 of the University of Tasmania Act 1992:
The document is frequently more focused on functions of elected government than the functions of a university.
While there is some solid content in the document, it is lost in a sea of words – much of it jargon, much of it repetitive and much of it so high level as to be meaningless.
At its meetings, the UTAS Council assesses its performance against a set of indicators (see for example, the August 2024 minutes, Item 3.2). I hope this document is not the basis for the Council’s future self-assessment.