WUR president Sjoukje Heimovaara presents WUR’s new strategic plan during the Dies Natalis. Photo: Resource. The bar has been set high for the new strategic plan that WUR presented today during the Dies Natalis – the university’s anniversary. Significant global and national developments, which also affect Wageningen, follow one another in rapid succession. It has become a contentious document in which concrete objectives are lacking.
During the 107th Dies – which focused on AI (a topic that only has a small part in the new plan) – president of the board Sjoukje Heimovaara presented WUR’s new strategic plan. The language of the document stands out. Call it contentious. ‘It is clear that we must act now,’ it says, and ‘that requires courage.’ And: ‘There is a global battle for talent’. What is omitted is also telling. The investment themes are gone, as is steering on student numbers, and concrete goals are also missing.
Those are still to come, says Heimovaara, explaining that this plan is more of a compass than a roadmap: ‘The world is constantly changing. Every morning when we wake up, something important may already have changed. Therefore, it is not a rock-solid but a guiding document with new themes with which we identify and in which we can flexibly steer concrete changes with the science groups.’ She presented the plan to WUR representatives; Blair van Belt (chair WUR Council) and Hanna Elsinga (chair Student Council). ‘So in a way to ourselves,’ Heimovaara said.
Read a full interview with Heimovaara about the new strategic plan – and topics such as student numbers, language, fundamental science, internationalisation – next Thursday (13 March) in the new Resource.
