Corporate strategic planning in a university

This paper reviews the relevance of key constituents in modern corporate strategic planning to policy determination in universities. The emphasis is on corporate policy making at the level of the individual institution, not the universities or higher education as a whole. From the outset it is assumed that a university has a measure of autonomy within a wider negotiated environment of which the universities, as a group, are a sector for negotiating purposes. There are therefore important elements in the working of any university that are bound not only by general laws and customs but by specific standard policies, practices and conditions applicable to all universities within a country, e.g. salary and wage-scales.First the environment of universities is examined to ascertain the relevance of such an approach to their problems before passing to an appreciation of their unique features in terms of decision-taking and adaptability. Only in the light of this survey is an attempt then made to concentrate on the particular issues which a university may have to resolve and to which such longer term planning can make a contribution.Inevitably this paper is coloured by the experiences and observations of the author when involved in two U.K. institutions that have undergone rapid growth and change at a pace previously unprecedented in the history of higher education in the United Kingdom. This experience has been shared by many universities and replicated in other higher educational institutions such as polytechnics.