BAM Strategy 2011 - 2014

BAM's newly developed Vision, Mission and Strategic Goals will be put to the membership for approval at the 2011 Annual General Meeting.

Click here to view BAM's Vision, Mission and Strategic Goals

Introduction

BAM’s previous five years strategic plan covered the period 2004 to 2009. Therefore, it is time to review and develop a new mission, vision, and strategic goals. The task is made more urgent by unprecedented change in the HE landscape. A brief discussion and the likely impact of the new environment follows.

Context

The Browne report and coalition government’s decision to allow English HE institutions to increase tuition fees to £9000 followed by the White Paper introducing a measure of competition has changed the face of HE in England. The change is not limited to England and as it is discussed later UK now have four distinct HE policy. In increasing the tuition fees ceiling to £9000 the coalition sent a strong signal emphasising the importance of teaching. The creeping consumerism will gather speed, undergraduates will demand greater attention, and teaching will assume a greater significance than hitherto, with or without government’s intervention. A key strategic question for BAM is whether or not to maintain its focus on research or broaden it to include teaching and learning.

Coalition government has clearly signalled further tightening of concentration policy. The likelihood is clearer segmentation where there will be limited number of research intensive universities and possibly a significant number of teaching only institutions. This presents a strategic challenge as many of our potential members are likely to be working in institutions focused more heavily on scholarship for teaching or professional application, rather than discipline-based research. A strategic question for BAM is whether we wish to be a narrow or broad learned society.

UK’s higher education policy has become fragmented and there are in effect four sets of policies and operating environments: England, Wales; Scotland; and Northern Ireland. A key challenge is how to ensure we are relevant to B & M academics in all four regions and to ensure that we do not solely focus on England.

The inclusion of impact in REF has given non-scholarly impact of research a high level of visibility. This is not a new agenda for BAM. The notion of a double hurdle of rigour and relevance was promulgated by BAM leaders long before HEFCE. The “so what?” question was posed by Andrew Pettigrew a former Chair of BAM. Mode 2 research and importance of involving practitioners in knowledge creation was also an issue championed by BAM Fellows. Yet it is odd that we have no formal institutional relationship with practice. Moreover, our existing relationship with organisations such as FME and our developing relationship with CMI need to be supported by a deliberate strategy. So another strategic question is whether or not we could carry on as before and ignore practitioners.

Translation to Practice

The mission, vision, and strategic goals are unlikely to change over medium term. We envisage an inclusive process. Every November the Council consults with members as to what are the critical objectives under each of the Strategic Goals for the coming year. The Council and Executive will then determine what can be achieved in line with resources and capabilities and will pursue and report on the progress. As such strategic goals will be addressed over a number of years.

Click here to view BAM's Vision, Mission and Strategic Goals