Comment | Help us shape our university's future

Since arriving at Keele as Vice-Chancellor in September, one of the things I have valued most has been meeting people across the University and the wider local community. 

I have spoken with students, staff, alumni, local partners, civic leaders, businesses, health professionals and many others who care deeply about Keele and about the future of Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire. What has struck me most is how much people want the University to succeed, and how many thoughtful, practical and ambitious ideas they have about what Keele could do next. 

That is why we are taking a different approach to developing Keele’s next strategy. 

Universities can sometimes sound distant and institutional. Strategies can sound like documents written by a small group of people behind closed doors, then announced when the real decisions have already been made. I do not want us to do that. 

Instead, we are opening up the process while the ideas are still being shaped. We want people to see the thinking, respond to it, challenge it, improve it and add ideas of their own. 

That is the purpose of the Keele Open Strategy Journal. 

The Journal is an online space where ideas for Keele’s future are being published openly. Many have come from staff across the University, alongside contributions from students and alumni. They are not final policy. They are not finished answers. They are starting points for discussion. 

Some of the ideas are about how we improve student life and support commuter students. Some are about making the campus more welcoming, including proposals for community gardens and outdoor recreation spaces. Others explore how Keele’s research can be made more useful to the people, organisations and communities who could benefit from it. 

What matters now is that people respond. 

I would genuinely like local residents, partners, businesses, community organisations, alumni, students, parents and anyone with an interest in Keele’s future to read the ideas and tell us what they think. You do not need to be an expert in higher education. In fact, some of the most useful comments may come from people looking at the University from the outside. 

If an idea feels exciting, tell us why. If it feels unrealistic, tell us that too. If something important is missing, we want to hear it. If you can see a way that Keele could work better with local communities, schools, colleges, employers, the NHS, charities or civic partners, please say so. 

Keele has been part of this area since 1949. We are proud of that history, but we also know that our future has to be built in partnership with the place around us. 

The University supports the equivalent of almost 5,500 jobs in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, and contributes £345 million to the local economy. Many of our academics also work directly in the local NHS, from delivering babies at Royal Stoke University Hospital to working as frontline paramedics with West Midlands Ambulance Service. 

But Keele’s role in the local area should not be measured only in economic terms. We are here to help create opportunity, improve lives, support public services, strengthen communities and contribute to the confidence and ambition of the region. 

That is why this conversation matters. 

Over the coming months, the ideas and comments in the Open Strategy Journal will help shape Keele’s new institutional strategy, which we will launch in November 2026. Before then, there is still time to influence the direction we take. 

I hope readers will take a look at the Journal and add their views. Please do not assume someone else will make the point for you. We are reading the comments, and we want the strategy to be better because people took the time to engage with it. 

The challenges facing universities are real, but so are the opportunities. Keele was founded with a strong sense of purpose: to serve its students, its community, its region and the wider world. That purpose is as important now as it was in 1949. 

The best strategies are not simply written for a community. They are shaped with one. 

You can view the Keele Open Strategy Journal and add your comments at: keele.ac.uk/strategy-journal.