A plan of the faculty: 'In France, it would have been a plan of the boss'
The moment has finally arrived: after months of hard work, the strategic plan is finished. It was an interesting period, thinks core group member Sylvestre Bonnet. 'How we finally arrived at this strategic plan was very different from what I had thought beforehand.'
Bonnet, who is originally from France, had expected the strategic plan to be written by a small group of people, with almost exclusive input from the dean. 'But it was just the opposite. An external company was even hired to help realise the strategy. This did make it truly a faculty plan.' In France, according to Bonnet, it is often the other way round. 'There, it would typically be a boss's plan, which co-worker don’t always want to follow. Here, it is much more collegial, and my feeling is that it works way better.'
'We are not a car manufacturer'
According to Bonnet, the strategic plan that is in place has quite the agreement of many. 'It has become a very realistic plan. It tells who we are as a faculty and what we think is important. We can use that well for the future.' It has not become a plan with goals set in stone about where we want to be in five years' time. And that is a good thing, Bonnet believes. We are not a car-making company whose goal is to switch to 100% electric car production within five years. The academic world is very broad and flexible. The form we have adopted for the strategic plan suits us as a faculty much better.'
Work to be done
Several major pillars, for instance, recur in the strategic plan, such as AI, drug development and biodiversity. Another pillar is sustainability. A theme that Bonnet hopes will be taken up more concretely at all levels of the faculty. 'Sustainability needs to come back to the faculty in a stronger way. We should make processes more sustainable, maybe there should be a sustainability committee, and I think we should also involve students more. We have put a lot of time into the strategic plan, so we will do everything we can to prevent the document from ending up in a drawer. There is work to be done.'