Dear all,
It was a pleasure to see so many of you at my inaugural President’s Address yesterday – thank you for joining in person and online. For those of you who weren’t able to join, you can watch the recording and read the text online.
The energy and dedication you brought to last night’s event – and which I have seen across the College in my first months in the role – make me confident we can strengthen Imperial’s position within the top tier of global universities and maximise its potential as a force for good.
Achieving this will require us to pay attention to both our long-term vision and day-to-day pressures.
Staff I have met have been very clear that we have further work to do together on our culture and values, the quality of our support systems and services, and workload, and these will be a priority for my team. Last night I announced that we will establish a People and Culture Subcommittee of the University Management Board, which I will chair, to ensure that culture and values have the prominence they deserve at the top table. I would also like to acknowledge the important ongoing work coordinated by the Imperial Together Action Group.
I also spoke about three immediate priorities for the Imperial student experience: student mental health, assessment and feedback, and student hardship. A priority for me over the next year will be to partner with our students and staff to develop a comprehensive ‘whole institution’ mental health strategy to ensure that our efforts across Imperial are joined-up and fit-for-purpose.
As we address the pressures staff and students face, it is important that we also carve out the time to look ahead to our medium and long-term strategic opportunities. We have enormous potential to further bolster our impact and reputation if we play smart and build on our strengths and differentiators; identify and act on new opportunities early; diversify our income streams and deploy our resources wisely; partner strategically; and strengthen our global brand.
The strategy we develop over the next year will capture our vision and create a roadmap to guide our decision-making and investments and inspire others to join us. We will seek views from our entire community and from external stakeholders, and I hope you will get involved.
Imperial is rightly ranked amongst the world’s best universities and clearly attracts the brightest minds from across the world. I have been inspired during my first few weeks by how many staff and students tell me that they chose Imperial explicitly because they want to make the world a better place.
It is a great privilege to serve as your President and I look forward to achieving our ambitions together.
Hugh Brady, President