With a commitment to enhancing the staff and student experience and doubling Indigenous enrolments over the next five years, Connections – the QUT Strategy 2023 to 2027 – is a bold plan to transform the learning experience.
The strategy connects aspiration to opportunity for our students and staff, it expands pathways for our Indigenous Australian students, and it builds supportive research environments. The strategy outlines our ambition to enrol up to 60,000 students a year across our urban campuses in the next five years which will include rebuilding our international student base.
QUT will also develop a curriculum transformation approach that responds to demand from students to support their journey from high school to graduation and beyond and reinforces the value of professional connections within the curriculum.
Our strategic evolution
Connections – the QUT Strategy 2023 to 2027 – articulates our shared vision for the future of QUT – the university for the real world. Connections informs our renewed purpose – to provide transformative education, student experiences and research relevant to our communities.
Connections strengthens the commitment to Indigenous Australian Excellence as outlined in our most recent Blueprint 6 strategy.
The Blueprint had a strong focus on ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices are heard, through increasing the Indigenous Australian staff and research focus and further developing Indigenous Australian researchers. It is also committed to increasing our Indigenous Australian student intake and providing dedicated support to Indigenous students.
The Indigenous artwork which features in Blueprint 6 is by Aboriginal graphic designer and artist Keisha Thomason. She is a proud Waanyi and Kalkadoon (Mount Isa, Queensland) and Chinese woman. Her artwork style is contemporary, influenced by her culture, identity and the modern world. We have continued that through Connections .
Supporting strategic documents
Supporting strategies
Digital Strategy
2023 - 2027
QUT as a university for the real world is all about supporting connection. Connecting through technology is a key component of our Connections – the QUT Strategy 2023 to 2027 and our digital strategy demonstrates our commitment to digital investment.
From the Vice-Chancellor
QUT is proud to present Connections – the QUT Strategy 2023 to 2027. The strategy will provide the foundation for our university to grow and flourish over the next five years.
Built around our core values of ambition, curiosity, integrity, inclusiveness and innovation, Connections will ensure our university provides transformative education and student experiences and undertakes research that is relevant to our communities.
We have added a core value, academic freedom, to reinforce the importance of engaging and leading respectful debates based on our expertise and scholarship.
We will support our students and will help them realise their full potential in a rapidly changing world – through providing flexible learning environments, practically orientated education, access to employers and lifelong learning opportunities.
Inclusion and social justice are priorities, as is identifying opportunities for future growth in diverse fields such as health, medical education, green engineering, and space research.
Connections includes clear targets – we will increase student enrolments across our two campuses and consolidate our other sites to align with industry, research, and students’ needs.
We are committed to embedding sustainability, a sense of connection to Country and the importance and well-being of staff and students in everything we do.
I am confident that Connections will guide QUT's success over the next five years.
Professor Margaret Sheil AO, Vice-Chancellor and President of QUT
Our strategy in action
Global recognition for QUT Business School
The QUT Business School has strengthened its position as a world class provider of executive education after climbing 10 spots in the prestigious UK Financial Times Custom Executive Education Rankings for 2023.
QUT pledges support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart
QUT has pledged its support for the Uluru Statement from the Heart with a formal statement approved by the University Council and the University Executive Leadership Team.
$30 million funding for QUT palliative care projects
QUT research projects have received nearly $30 million from Federal Government funding to fund palliative care projects.
QUT-developed GM Cavendish offers safety net to world banana industry
A QUT-developed genetically modified (GM) variety of Cavendish banana designed to help save the world’s production submitted for approval.
What we're connecting
Aspiration and opportunity
- To enhance access and opportunity to QUT for those students who are traditionally under-represented in higher education.
- To expand pathways for Indigenous Australian students to engage in higher education and achieve their full potential.
- To expand opportunities for our students to undertake entrepreneurial and professional experiences.
- To build outstanding, supportive research environments.
Knowledge and discovery
- By aligning our education and research.
- By offering a curriculum spanning disciplinary, cultural and global boundaries.
- By conducting fundamental and applied research that addresses significant challenges.
- By providing pathways for alumni and businesses in lifelong learning.
- By building and supporting Indigenous Australian research excellence and innovation.
The real world
- By reinforcing the value of professional practice in the curriculum.
- To translate our research to provide economic and social benefit to the community, industry, and global partners.
- To prepare our students for future careers.
- To deliver innovative and data-informed approaches in areas such as clean energy, waste and environment, healthcare, agriculture, media and the arts, and business.
- To create an organisational culture and environment that fosters and promotes Indigenous Australian excellence.
People and purpose
- To live our organisational culture and values.
- To encourage ambition and support achievement of our staff and students.
- To develop professional and ethical leaders.
- To practise and promote sustainability.
- To embed financial strategy and accountability.
- To work together through a genuine partnership approach with Indigenous Australian people.
Connecting through technology
- To develop our physical and digital campuses through authentic engagement.
- To develop accessible, high-quality online education.
- To enable interconnection of the QUT community.
- To assist occupants and end users to connect with place, Indigenous Australian history and culture.
Our priorities
QUT supports students and staff to experiment, to identify creative opportunities and to turn ideas into action.
Students and staff are encouraged to explore entrepreneurship and innovation—creating value for organisations, the community and a sustainable future.
QUT seeks to embed principles of health and wellbeing in our curricula and promote health and wellbeing for our staff and students.
We are committed to providing for the future health needs of the communities we serve.
QUT is committed to providing opportunities for staff and students to realise their full potential—to transform the intellectual, economic and social capital of community and the nation.
We are committed to expanding the diversity of our community of staff and students.
QUT is committed to building, sustaining and celebrating a culture of excellence in Indigenous Australian education, research and engagement.
QUT is committed to living lightly upon the earth and reducing our environmental footprint, while improving our institutional resilience.
We aspire to be a leader in sustainability research, education and practice.
Our history and Campus to Country
The Brisbane campuses of QUT are situated on the land of the Turrbal and Yugara people.
"The Campus to Country tells a story of history and place. The stories of the Country link and flow, from the past to the present, creating a blueprint of history. QUT and Aboriginal people share the same land with different stories, being told in conjunction to each other, coming together now to create a better future together." - Keisha Thomason
Queensland Government objectives
QUT’s teaching and research supports the Queensland Government’s objectives for the community.
Good jobs
We're providing programs supporting the jobs of the future.
Better services
We're educating front line workers from teachers to paramedics to deliver better services.
Great lifestyle
We're protecting our state’s great lifestyle through a range sustainability research, education, and practice.