Review of Strategic Plan and Academic Structure: Discussion and Consultation

The Mid-term Revision of Securing Success has now been completed and changes approved by the Board of Trustees at the Board’s April 2018 meeting. Prior to the Board meeting the draft plan was presented for consideration by Academic Senate, the University Executive Committee, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders on Campus Advisory Committee and the Board of Trustees and its Standing Committees. The process also benefitted from submissions received during the consultation phase. We trust you will find that we have addressed the key issues identified by the University community:

  1. Revised STRATEGIC CONTEXT: Inclusion of an appropriate Western Growth narrative to reflect the rapidly changing context and development of the University.
  2. Better articulation of the concept of 'research-led', including the role of research strength in the international agenda and global university rankings.
  3. Strengthening of the University's Engagement agenda, including engagement with our significant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
  4. The critical importance of the International strategy to the University.
  5. Better articulation of the concept of 'student-centeredness' and graduate attributes.

We have also made every effort to ensure that goals and priorities are clearly aligned to the changing context of the University and are better integrated. Appendices have also been updated.

Academic Structure

At the 20 February 2019 meeting of the Board of Trustees, the Final Report and Recommendations on the Review of Academic Structures were presented and approved.

As the Board has the delegated authority to approve the establishment and disestablishment of Schools, it resolved:

That the Board of Trustees approve the establishment (as of 1 January 2020) of the following Schools (titles indicative and some modifications have already been made):

a. School of Health;

b. School of Science;

c. School of Social Sciences;

d. School of Psychology;

e. School of the Built Environment, Architecture and Industrial Design;

f. School of Computing, Mathematics, Statistics and Data Science; and

g. School of Engineering.


And the concurrent disestablishment of the following existing Schools:

a. School of Science and Health;

b. School of Social Sciences and Psychology; and

c. School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics.


The report, along with the Western Sydney University Draft Clusters Terms of Reference, are now available in the right hand column of this site.