‘The University of Gdańsk is a unique space, diverse both in terms of the scientific disciplines represented and the directions of education and possible means of influencing the socio-economic environment. We are delineating it on a new map of future development, which is the Strategy for 2025-2030,’ emphasised the Rector of UG prof. dr hab. Piotr Stepnowski. ‘To effectively set the most important strategic directions, we need to involve a group of experts representing top, middle and lower management divisions. The Vice-Rectors who are responsible for setting the next milestones for the University of Gdańsk are also involved.’

Three days, three meetings, and one common but also extremely ambitious goal: to develop a Development Strategy for the University of Gdańsk for 2025-2030. Can such an important task be accomplished during these workshops? The Vice-Rector for Development and Finance, dr hab. Paweł Antonowicz, prof. UG, assures that with the right methodology (and this is what we have at the University) it is possible. It is worth emphasising that the foundation of this action is the participatory involvement of nearly 70 people representing key functional areas of the University in the creation of the new UG strategy.

‘We are keen to bring about dialogue: inter-area, inter-field and inter-disciplinary,’ emphasises prof. Paweł Antonowicz. The strategic workshops, which began on 22 October this year, are intended, among other things, to ensure that the elements of the future Strategic Package of the University of Gdańsk are developed jointly, with the participation of representatives of all strategically important areas of the University's activity, and not imposed top-down by its authorities.

The aim of the first meeting (22 October) at the UG Library was to work out 20 strategic goals in four perspectives of the so-called Balanced Scorecard, an original methodology based on the concept of R. Kaplan and D. Norton), covering the four development pillars of our University:

I. Highest level of university education

II. Highest quality in scientific research and innovation creation

III. Openness, social responsibility and internationalisation

IV. Highest level of efficiency in University management

Subsequently, 5 operational goals will be assigned to each of the strategic goals. This network of 100 development goals for UG will be a kind of signpost for the next 5 years of the University's activities. An important element will also be the definition of measures that will allow ongoing control of the extent to which the goals will be realised from 2025 onwards. The possibility of continuous and ongoing verification of the implementation of the strategic objectives corresponds with the results of the audit commissioned by the Ministry of Finance at UG. The improvement of the strategic management process at UG is also to be facilitated by a new, prototype dedicated IT system for higher education and science, created - as Prof. Paweł Antonowicz stressed - especially for this purpose with our University's own resources. The Vice-Rector also expressed the hope that the system will have wider application: ‘This tool could also be made available to other universities in the future. It could also serve as a kind of management platform, which we can successfully extend to the level of (ministerial) corporate governance - if, of course, there is room for further evolution of the concept, for which we already express our full readiness.’

The work on strategic goals during the workshop was done in groups corresponding to the four perspectives listed in the aforementioned UG balanced scorecard. The Vice-Rector also emphasised the importance of the University's development being as balanced as possible in all areas (which was achieved, for example, during the previous 5 years of the existing Strategy, and was achieved thanks to the very strong involvement of over 50 persons responsible for the implementation of objectives in key areas of UG activity and operations).  ‘It is worth remembering that the Strategy is not built so that we can predict that we will achieve a hundred per cent in each section, but also that our plans are not so narrow that we should limit ourselves to a hundred per cent in other sections of the Strategy,’ said Prof. P. Antonowicz.

The Vice-Rector also drew attention to the need to maintain a certain flexibility in formulating the challenges of the University and the importance of linking the general strategy with the strategies of individual faculties. Referring to the reality and business practice of such strategic plans, prof. P. Antonowicz stressed that faculty strategies should absolutely follow from the general strategy of the whole UG, and not the other way round. The model for the development of UG proposed at the 22 October workshop is in fact to enable the goals of the whole University to be realised, while preserving the right to autonomy by the individual faculties.

The meeting on October 22 was attended, among others, by the UG Rector's Office, the dean's offices of all 11 UG faculties, directors and heads of central administration units and units separate from the Rector's Office. Panel moderators were prof. Paweł Antonowicz - Vice-Rector for Development and Finance at UG, prof. Robert Bęben, prof. Piotr Sliż, dr Jędrzej Siciński, dr Bartosz Nowak, and Jan Pietruszewski.

The next workshops will take place on November 5 and November 8, 2024.