Education

We will provide talented and motivated students from all backgrounds, and of all nationalities, with an outstanding education.

Ambition

We will create the conditions for our students, at every level of study and from all backgrounds, to:​ 

  • Flourish in, draw inspiration from, and contribute to our culturally diverse and dynamic academic community.   

  • Gain the excellent critical, analytic, creative, digital, and practical capabilities which are valued by employers and form the basis for professional achievements which will shape a more sustainable future society. 

  • Develop the personal attributes – including knowledge, opinions, independence, networks, and self-confidence – which will in combination equip them for fulfilling lives and careers. 

Our graduates will be exceptional and highly sought-after: they will think critically and differently, and make a real impact on society.​ Our teaching and learning environment will be student-centred and enriching, with an emphasis on practice-based learning. 

Mission

We provide talented and motivated students from all backgrounds, and of all nationalities, with an outstanding education. We draw on our excellent research and partnerships to equip students with the knowledge, professional skills, and personal qualities to achieve their ambitions. 

Objectives

  • Ensure all of our programmes are designed to enable all of our students to achieve the core graduate attributes that are central to the ‘Surrey Advantage’. 

  • Support students from all backgrounds with high academic potential to join our programmes, and create the conditions for all of our students to realise their goals. 

  • Be leaders in developing, embedding, and disseminating effective and innovative practices in relation to all aspects of pedagogy across our programmes. 

  • Develop innovative, learning environments on and off campus, building on the hybrid education model. 

  • Continue to lead in our academic support for employability, professional development and professional training. 

Key activities to deliver

Embed the core graduate attributes into all programmes

Students study together in a lab environment

We will embed our learner-centric curriculum design across all programmes so that, alongside subject knowledge and skills, our students will experience: professionally focused learning underpinned by foundational scholarship that nurtures career-ready graduates; a diverse international and cultural environment at the heart of the learning experience; opportunities to contribute to a global, networked digital society; unique opportunities to develop as future leaders in sustainable thinking; and supported development to become independent and resourceful learners.  

Our curriculum design will involve strong staff-student partnerships throughout the process, and will link with our Research and Innovation strategy, to ensure that our teaching is both student-focused, and research-informed. Through our approach to curriculum design, we believe all of our students will secure the ‘Surrey Advantage’ that sets them apart from other graduates. The synergistic combination of the attributes of global and cultural intelligence, digital capabilities, knowledge and skills, sustainability, employability and resilience and resourcefulness is what secures the distinctive ‘Surrey Advantage’.  

Learning analytics and student success

Students study together around a computer

We will use analytics to share insights with our student community and enable early intervention support where it is most needed using a dedicated support team to proactively work to improve retention and success for students across the University. Initially we will draw together, and share, real-time data that provides early warnings both helping students to help themselves, and also ensuring targeted support is offered. As trends in success and risk become clearer, we will be better placed to use predictive analytics to inform support and interventions. This work will link with the bold targets in our Access and Participation plan to maximise student success and improve progression across our entire student community.  

Innovative learning environments

Students study on laptops

We will build on the hybrid education model developed during the pandemic to ensure that we continue to provide a modern virtual learning environment for future generations, taking advantage of the flexibility in learning through the growth of ‘Education on Demand’. We will seek to maximise the use of technology to assist in the provision of learning, through learning capture/ streaming, virtual and augmented learning, and technology and social learning spaces for collaboration and student innovation. This will involve improvement and change to some of our teaching spaces and social learning spaces to ensure they are both innovative, and appropriate, for this hybrid approach.  

Measures of success

There are many ways in which we will analyse the success of our objectives but these three top level measures in particular enable us to evaluate the quality of our education through the equitable attainment of our students, their perception of their education and their propensity to complete their studies.  

Top quartile

For student retention

<6% 

Awarding gap between White and Black students

≥Top quartile

Student satisfaction (NSS)