FRAMEWORK

With the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan UC will be a University increasingly empowered to build the future, embodying its vision and goals in a sustainable and socially responsible way.

This indispensable document will enable UC to be internationally recognised as a research university, in which the production of high quality knowledge influences the educational process and increases the sharing of knowledge with society, and respond to each and every one’s problems, and contribute without reservations to a sustainable development.

Bearing always in mind that people are the most valuable component of the strategy and all of them are important to achieve success, the Strategic Plan results from a wide process of listening and reflection organised between May and November, with the involvement and active participation of the academic community.

This reflection included, simultaneously, academic partners and external agents, thus contributing to the strengthening of the relationships between the UC and society, and to a broad participatory, cross-cutting and multicultural approach by including different perspectives and contributions.

The Strategic Plan presents the main strategic guidelines for the University of Coimbra and the goals that, in the quadrennium of the ongoing Rector’s term of office, will contribute to achieve the vision, by defining the pathway which, in light of current knowledge, best enables the UC to achieve the wanted results.

Since the success in implementing the strategy will depend also on the preparation to face different plausible designed scenarios in the evolution of the surrounding environment, the prospective component is an essential element of the process.

UC Action Plan complements the Strategic Plan by systematising the main actions aimed to implement the strategic guidelines listed for the 2019-2023 quadrennium. However, achieving the proposed goals depends also on the successful alignment of the goals and actions of the Quality Plan and the Action Plans of all the organisational units, the Social Services and the Administration of the University of Coimbra.

Throughout the previous strategic planning cycles, a culture of permanent monitoring and regular assessment of the University of Coimbra's activity was created and developed. This culture is cross-cutting in all the organisational structure and in the different management levels, and has already been perfectly integrated into the academic community.

The dynamic process integrated into UC management cycle will be maintained, thus enabling the continuous development of the processes of planning, monitoring, assessment and feedback loop, with a view to achieve excellence in all the pillars, mission axes and areas.