Within thirty short years CEU has developed into a leading research-oriented English language university in Europe that awards US and European dual degrees. We have outstanding, internationally recognized faculty; graduate and, more recently, undergraduate programs that attract the brightest students from around the globe; and a rapidly expanding and strong alumni network. Importantly, in the past five years CEU has also become known globally as the bastion of academic freedom, championing the principles of open societies and access to higher education. Initially focused on Eastern Europe, with its move to Vienna CEU today is home to a truly global, diverse student body.
The disruption caused by the pandemic, the forced relocation to Vienna and the Russian aggression against Ukraine have posed major challenges for our community and for the university as an institution. However, each of these unforeseen events has also afforded us new opportunities: to experiment with online teaching and working in home office; to anchor the university anew in an intellectually vibrant, cosmopolitan city with an exciting cultural life; and to establish the Invisible University for Ukraine that could serve as a model for virtual course offers as part of a new integrated program of access to CEU.
Our original mission to strengthen open societies, and to advance the values of freedom of expression and engaged scholarship remains more relevant than ever. In the new global context of changes in the global higher education landscape and as we embark on building a new campus in Vienna, it is time to revise our existing Strategic Plan, CEU 2025. It is time to come together to not only reiterate our mission but also to forge a new vision that reflects our aspirations as a community. Crafting this new framework for the way forward must be a collective endeavor based on a broad consensus amongst all members of the community- faculty, staff, students, alumni, and our Board- about the future directions and goals that we set for ourselves.
This is especially important because our new Strategic Plan will be a consequential document: it will determine what kind of campus we will build in Vienna, it will shape our student recruitment strategies, our hiring initiatives, our fundraising efforts, our decisions about future academic programs and partnerships, and it will form the framework for the Board’s deliberations on both fiscal and academic matters.
Let us start from the 5 broad themes identified by the Senate’s Strategic Development Committee in May 2022. These are the following:
· The university was established with a specific mission: to offer access to high quality university education to bright students especially from Central and Eastern Europe and to produce world-class research with a global impact in the spirit of open societies. What is our vision for the university in the 21st century?
· We are a heavily research-oriented university, which has been key to our self-definition. How do we strengthen academic excellence and increase diversity in the faculty? How do we improve the research opportunities we offer and give greater
visibility to the research output of faculty and students? What kind of innovative interdisciplinary research would we like to foster that builds on our strengths to meet some of the global challenges that we face today?
· How would we like to shape the student body at CEU? We now have newly established undergraduate programs, and our MA/PhD programs operate in a novel intellectual and institutional context. What should be the balance between undergraduate and graduate programs and student numbers? What innovative modes and methods of teaching and learning could enhance student experience? How can we be inclusive and ensure recruitment of, and access to, excellent students from all over the world regardless of their financial means?
· We cannot go it alone. We must strengthen existing strategic partnerships with institutions of higher education and build new ones that offer new learning and research opportunities to students and faculty. Which research areas should we focus on, which joint degrees could we establish, and which academic institutions should we partner with? How can we improve synergies with the programs and activities in Budapest as the units housed there go forward to build a coherent research program on the study of illiberalism in comparative perspective?
· We must build a strong and stable institution. We must streamline and make more effective our administrative processes to support teaching and research. We must also be a fair and supportive workplace for our staff. We must continue to insist on diversity and inclusion at the university. Finally, we should consider ways to make the university financially stable as we go forward to build a new campus in Vienna.
We are initiating a series of university wide discussions on these thematic foci. From September to November 2022, we look forward to listening to your views, exchanging ideas, and receiving suggestions from everyone at the university. The discussions will take place in face-to-face meetings, online meetings, and can continue on our online discussion forum.
Based on this participatory process, the Senate’s Strategic Development Committee will discuss and endorse a first draft of the Strategic Planning document in late November. This will then be open for further discussions and modifications from December 2022 to the end of February 2023, when the final draft will be produced, further refined, and adopted by the Senate and presented to the Board of Trustees.
The timeline as foreseen now is attached with the dates of the planned community fora until the end of November. A revision of the online platform where we’ll store all relevant documents, collect ideas and manage a close discussion of the emerging text is under construction.
We look forward to designing “CEU Looking Forward” based on your active participation.
