As a university, we are committed to widening the horizons of scientific knowledge in our society. We want to get the best from ourselves and from our students, who will soon be tackling the issues our world is facing. That is the raison d’être of our research-intensive education, our doctoral programmes and our academic research. The University must therefore redefine itself and innovate while facing a number of major challenges.

Virtually all of the UvA’s areas of research rank highly on the international stage. In a rapidly changing world, however, what is good today may not be good enough tomorrow. That’s why we will continue to invest in our strength: the fundamental research in our disciplines. From there we will stimulate innovation in research and education through additional funding and put digitalisation at the top of our agenda.

Additional funding, portfolio analysis and vigorous digitalisation will ensure that the degree programmes that we offer remain up-to-date and relevant. There will also be an incentive to innovate from the demand-side, i.e. from students and society. The student population is becoming ever more diverse. We want to ensure that our degree programmes reflect this diversity and the world around us. This includes giving graduates from all disciplines the opportunity to participate in lifelong learning.

To innovate on an ongoing basis, we must encourage not only internal but also external collaboration. We realise that knowledge (including fundamental knowledge) is generated in interaction with others. We will expand and strengthen our external partnerships: at international, national and local level. At the latter level – that of the city and the region- we can contribute more to improvement of the living environment.

The UvA educates people who can tackle societal prolems and develops the knowledge that enables them to do so. In doing so, we actively help to shape the world of tomorrow. Part of that is putting the public values which we hold dear into practice ourselves. That way we practise what we ‘preach’ and play our part in creating a liveable, safe, just and sustainable environment.

The UvA’s capital comprises the knowledge, talents and motivation of both its academic and its support staff, working in line with our core ambitions for education and research. If we are to remain a broad-ranging, top-level University, we must attract talented people with a variety of skills and allow them to flourish, retain them but also let them go. A prerequisite for this is an attractive working and learning environment which centres on sustainable employability and which appeals to people with a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives.

In order to achieve our ambitions, we must be able to adapt our broad range of research and education quickly and at any time. As an academic environment, the UvA must challenge staff and students to be the best they can be and to think beyond the boundaries of their own discipline. We can only do this if our organisation is flexible in terms of change processes and agile in its daily operations.