Public invited to help shape Keele University’s future

Keele University is inviting the public to help shape the university’s future as it writes its new strategy. 

The University is in the process of developing a new institutional strategy to help shape its activities and priorities for the years ahead, with staff, students, and alumni all contributing ideas as part of the process. 

Now, the public and partners of the University are also being invited to have their say with the launch of Keele’s Open Strategy Journal. 

The journal is a platform that provides an open and transparent record of how ideas are contributing to the development of our future strategy.   

Staff from across Keele have submitted their ideas throughout the year, alongside contributions from students and alumni, which have been carefully reviewed and refined through constructive feedback before being published in the online Journal.  

The ideas featured do not represent final University policy, nor are they intended to provide definitive answers. Instead, they form part of an ongoing conversation about Keele's future.    

Initial ideas include ways of supporting commuter students more effectively, making the campus more welcoming, and ways of making Keele’s research more accessible and usable by key people and organisations that can be helped by it. 

Importantly, the Journal makes the strategy development process visible; allowing everyone to see how ideas evolve, how feedback shapes thinking, and how our whole community are helping to inform the direction of the University. 

Professor Kevin Shakesheff, Vice-Chancellor of Keele University, said: “We want this to be a genuinely collaborative endeavour, which is why we are encouraging engagement not only from staff, students, and alumni, but also from the local community and our partners.  

“Keele has been proudly serving the local community since 1949, and our civic focus is why input from our local community is so important. I’d encourage everyone in the area to get involved, explore the journal, and be part of this crucial conversation.” 

Over the coming months, the ideas, themes and conversations captured within the Journal will help inform the development of a new institutional strategy, which we will launch in November 2026.  

The Journal will also serve as a lasting record of the contributions made throughout this journey, reflecting our belief that the best strategies are not simply written for a community, but created by one.  

You can view and contribute to the Open Strategy Journal at www.keele.ac.uk/strategy-journal.