New Fontys-wide strategy 'For Society 2030' launched

On 1 January, Fontys adopted a new institutional plan for the period 2026-2030. During Fontys' New Year's meeting on Monday 5 January, the three members of the Executive Board presented the new strategy to the chair of the Central Participation Council (CPC) and the chairs of the student and staff factions of the CPC.

Over the past year, we have worked hard to develop the successor to Fontys for society 2021-2025. Not only by the Executive Board, of course; hundreds of colleagues and students have contributed their ideas, thoughts and efforts in future exploration sessions, dialogue sessions, steering groups and representative bodies. This took the form of substantive considerations, provocative 'sandpaper' documents, but also by providing comments on draft versions. External relations were also involved: partners in the professional field, fellow knowledge institutions, representatives of secondary and vocational education, government bodies, and triple helix organisations.

The result is 'For Society 2030'. The name says it all: Fontys is building firmly on the most important ambitions set out in Fontys for Society, which we have worked hard to achieve over the past five years. We are on our way to becoming a talent-oriented, research-based and agile Fontys. We will therefore maintain this course, because we are not yet where we want to be. Transitions such as the introduction of talent-oriented education, the strengthening of our research organisation and the harmonisation of support processes (HARP) have not been completed. They therefore remain central to the new strategy. To be clear: our payoff 'Fontys for Society' remains unchanged.

What is new, however, is that we view the world more from an 'outside perspective'. We make three promises to three important stakeholders: our students, of course, first and foremost. We see you, we see your talent, and in our close-knit learning community, you will continue to develop your talent. Our second promise is to our partners (of all shapes and sizes): collaboration is the key to realising our ambitions. And so we are investing even more in our relationship with the world around us. And we are continuing to work on our own accessibility. Finally, we make a promise to society: we use our talent and our multidisciplinary, practice-oriented research to work towards progress and a better world. For society, indeed.

Even though For Society 2030 has now been launched, the work is not yet done. The coming months will be devoted to further operationalising the promises and goals (‘what are we going to do’) and answering the question: how do we measure and know whether we are on track? This elaboration will only be published online and can be updated as necessary over the coming years.

‘The people who work at Fontys want to make a difference. For students, for the professional field and for society,’ says Joep Houterman, chair of the Executive Board. ‘And as a large university of applied sciences, we want the same thing. We can only achieve this if we work together. With this strategy, Fontys is taking the lead in the collaboration and knowledge sharing that are necessary to solve social issues and strengthen the innovative power of the regions. We firmly believe that this is part of our social mission.’

Want to know more? Watch the animationabout the new strategy. Or see how the three promises are already being put into practice within and outside Fontys: focus on the student, collaboration as the key, and working towards progress.

Author: Sander Peters