Vision 2021-2030: A University for the World

The University of Gothenburg’s vision expresses the University’s ambition in terms of what it endeavours to be and the core values on which the institution rests. The vision provides the basis for the University’s goals and strategic planning.

The vision of A University for the World expresses the endeavour to be an international higher education institution that assumes responsibility for societal development while helping to build a sustainable world.

This vision also affirms that the University’s operations rest on the core academic values formulated in the Magna Charta Universitatum and that these are sustained within the framework of the principles that govern Swedish public administration.

Read about Magna Charta Universitatum

Read about the principles that govern Swedish public administration
(in Swedish)

Commitments

Taking the University’s core values as a point of departure, the vision is built around three commitments that show the way for the University’s development over the coming decade.

Top-quality education and research

The University of Gothenburg will foster internationally distinguished education and research in all the sciences with a view to contributing to the evolution of knowledge and enhancing its own competitive power.

Education and research at the University will be characterised by scholarly-scientific and pedagogical collaboration in complete academic environments guided by ethical considerations. Staff and students driven by curiosity, creativity, and the unrestricted pursuit of knowledge in vigorous disciplines come together in order to evolve fresh knowledge.

Continuous quality-improvement efforts will contribute to the development of knowledge while strengthening the international competitiveness and recognition of the University. These efforts include the promotion of academic culture in a spirit of loyalty among colleagues as well as the dissemination of findings and experiences.

All education will be connected to research, and the quality of both teaching and research will be reinforced by collaborative projects on local, regional, national, and international levels. The University will work actively to counter inequality to counteracting inequalities at the structural level while upholding norms which ensure that staff and students treat one another with mutual respect.

Sustainable and knowledge-based societal development

The University of Gothenburg will strengthen its relevance as an agent and a partner in society, with the aim of influencing societal development and contributing to the fulfilment of the global development goals.

Firmly anchored in the University’s tradition of a powerful commitment to social progress, unfettered research, and a high level of general education, staff and students will work towards sustainable societal development in the long term.

In close cooperation with a variety of agents in society, on local, regional, national, and international levels, the University will pursue improvement and innovation in society at large. By way of constant development in education and research, the University will meet society’s long-term need for competences and knowledge while preparing students for their future working lives.

The University will step up its contribution towards the sustainable-development goals articulated by the United Nations’ General Assembly in Agenda 2030.

A coherent organisation, and an attractive place of work and study

The University of Gothenburg will develop as a coherent organisation, as well as an attractive place of work and study, in order to reinforce the quality and relevance of the education and research conducted at the University.

The organisation of the University will be coherent in a well-balanced manner, promoting the idea of the University as a whole. The development and governance of the University are informed by recognition of the crucial influence exercised by the academic profession as well as by students. The quality and relevance of the University’s operations will be developed by way of stable conditions, a sense of involvement, and cross-border collaboration of various kinds, all of which will be imbued with respect, reciprocity, and joint responsibility. Consequently, the University will be governed with keen attention to long-term perspectives and in a spirit of decentralisation and trust.

All staff and students will contribute to the development of education and research by virtue of their various roles and competences. The University will be characterised by collaboration in a wide sense, staff and students together shaping an internationally attractive place of work and study. Combined with active leadership, dialogues and processes sustained by the cooperation of peers will create working conditions in which the range of a full-scale university is an ever-present advantage.

A vision, goals and strategies
as a basis for planning

The vision’s core values and three commitments are the foundation on which to build a university for the world. This work is based on the University’s goals and strategies, which are gathered within a number of areas of priority.

Goals and strategies are formulated for a period of three years at a time with the intention of creating good preconditions for developing education, research and collaboration. They form the basis for three-year operational strategies and annual operational plans at the various levels within the University. Together, these goals, strategies and activities contribute to achieving the University of Gothenburg’s vison of being a university for the world.

Goals and strategies 2021–2024

University-wide goals and strategies for the initial period 2021-2024 are formulated based on the vision’s commitments and gathered into six focus areas.