Acting with Head, Heart and Hand: Queen Margaret University Strategy 2026–2031

We exist to create a better society through education, research, and innovation, recognising education as a public good. We empower individuals and communities to flourish through professionally focused, accessible education, applied research and innovation. With a long history of combining intellectual rigour with compassion and practical action, we act with Head, Heart and Hand, providing professionally focused and accessible education with strong career outcomes. 

To fulfil this purpose, we direct our teaching and research towards those disciplines and professions where we can make a distinctive contribution to society, preparing graduates in health, education, creative and cultural practice, ethical enterprise and selected applied fields.

Supporting each individual and encouraging collective support

We value each individual and encourage collective support. Every member of staff and every student has their own journey and contribution. Queen Margaret University provides a supportive environment in which they can flourish. 

A world view underpinned by social justice

We value social justice. It underpins our world view. We embrace equality, diversity, inclusion, respect, and we support our communities. Opportunities and access should be open to all and on a fair basis. 

Intellectual curiosity and the journey of discovery

We value intellectual curiosity and the journey of discovery. We design our teaching and research to nurture both. 

Fostering ambition 

We value ambition. We inspire our students and staff to achieve their best. We pursue opportunities, often in partnership with others, to transform society for the better and enhance our visibility within higher education sector and the wider economy. 

Environmental sustainability

We value environmental sustainability. We recognise the severe threats to our environment and will be a sector leader in response. Our modern campus is a major asset in this work. 

Promoting excellence

We value excellence. This is embedded in our research, teaching and learning, knowledge exchange and the services we provide. It will be evident in the experience of our students, staff and partners. 

Primary Aspiration 

To be recognised as Scotland’s most professionally focused university, known for high-quality, accessible education and strong career outcomes, delivered through a modern, digitally enabled, and financially sustainable operating model. 

Subsidiary Aspirations 

For on-campus students: To offer a high quality, supportive and career focused learning experience that attracts, retains and develops our Scottish, RUK and international students, and enables them to balance study with work and other personal commitments. 

For QMU Online learners: To offer high-quality, flexible and engaging asynchronous degrees that attract and retain our students in the UK and internationally who are seeking to develop their knowledge and skills to enhance their careers. 

For staff: To enable our staff to succeed through clear priorities, supportive leadership and investment in capability, with a shared sense of purpose and direction aligned to the University’s strategy. 

For TNE partners: To be the UK partner of choice for international education organisations seeking to deliver high-quality, professionally relevant UK degrees at scale, with strong quality assurance, staff support and student satisfaction. 

For collaborators: To be a trusted, flexible academic, research and innovation partner across health, education, creative industries, SMEs and the third sector. 

For the region of Edinburgh and South East Scotland: To use our campus, innovation assets and expertise to generate social and cultural value and build community wealth. 

1. Academic Portfolio and Learners 

QMU will focus on professionally orientated education, with particular strength in: 

• healthcare, healthcare sciences and allied health professions; 
• teacher education; 
• creative and cultural industries; 
• ethical business; and 
• selected applied disciplines aligned with demonstrable market demand. 

This will involve: 

• filling our allocated Scottish Funding Council (SFC) funded student numbers; 
• modest growth in non SFC funded on campus students, including RUK and international students; 
• significant growth in QMU online provision and student numbers; 
• sustained growth in TNE partners and student numbers; 
• consolidation or withdrawal from financially unviable or low demand provision and partnerships; and 
• development of flexible, modular, CPD pathways and, subject to policy conditions, graduate apprenticeships. 

2. Delivery Channels 

QMU will deliver through four main channels: 

• on campus and blended provision in Musselburgh, as the anchor of institutional identity; 
• asynchronous online programme delivery, predominantly postgraduate, with selective undergraduate expansion for non-Scottish domiciled students; 
• UK and international collaborative and TNE provision, expanded in a measured, quality assured way; and 
• commercial use of campus facilities, primarily outside core teaching periods. 

3. Partnerships and Collaboration 

QMU will pursue selective strategic collaboration where this would: 

• reduce cost through shared services or infrastructure; 
• improve resilience and access to markets; and 
• support portfolio delivery or estate optimisation. 
• QMU is open to deeper integration and collaborative working where conditions, governance and identity protections are met, while not pursuing full merger. 

QMU will win through focused value differentiation, supported by cost discipline and operational modernisation. 

1. Value Differentiation 

We will differentiate QMU through: 

• a strong brand identity focused on professionally oriented learning, supported by two distinct and defined sub-brands: QMU Online and QMU Global; 
• a partnership-based student experience within a supportive learning community, in which students are known, valued and supported as individuals, are active partners in shaping their learning, and are enabled to balance study with other commitments; 
• strong employability, applied learning, work experience and professional accreditation; 
• a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, embedded across programme design, student support and staff practice in all delivery modes; 
• distinct learning routes aligned to commuter, mature, professional and career-changing learners and 
• credibility and reputation in professional sectors where QMU already has recognised strength. 

2. Sustainability and Cost Levers 

• targeted portfolio expansion into new, high‑demand disciplinary areas aligned with the Scottish Government’s skills priorities and offering growth potential across our delivery channels;  
• growth in income streams with clear net contribution, including CPD, TNE, online, knowledge exchange and innovation, and commercial services; 
• portfolio management that reduces cross-subsidy pressures within the academic portfolio; 
• improved student recruitment, retention and progression; and 
• better utilisation of estate and infrastructure to support strategic delivery and income generation. 

3. Operational Modernisation 

We will implement a new Professional Services Operating Model featuring: 

• Clear accountability and decision rights 
  Simplified structures and clarified ownership of services, processes and outcomes. 
• Standardised, end‑to‑end processes 
  Redesigned and simplified core administrative and support processes, removing unnecessary variation and legacy practices that no longer support strategic priorities. 
• Service‑led organisation of professional services 
  Services organised around defined user needs and service propositions, with consistent standards, service levels and points of access for students, staff and partners. 
• Improved management information and insight 
  Strengthened availability, quality and timeliness of data to support operational management, performance monitoring and early intervention. 
• Aligned digital systems and architecture 
  Process redesign integrated with investment in core digital systems and automation. 

4. Staff-enabled delivery 

The successful delivery of this strategy depends on enabling staff to operate effectively within a focused, well-supported environment. This requires: 

• clear institutional and local prioritisation to reduce competing demands; 
• investment in staff capability, particularly in digital learning delivery and digital systems; 
• effective leadership and management at all levels; 
• recognition of, and support for, the staff contribution to student experience and outcomes; and 
• alignment between workload expectations and the scale and pace of change. 

Delivery in these areas will be supported through the University’s People Strategy, which provides the framework for workforce planning, leadership development, staff engagement and organisational culture.

These levers are addressed explicitly through the core capabilities and enabling management systems set out in the following two sections.

To deliver this strategy, QMU must excel in a small number of distinctive, reinforcing capabilities in which the University will invest disproportionately and seek to perform distinctively. 

The University’s core capabilities are: 

• Student journey design for student support and success 
  The ability to embed support, practice-based learning and employability into programme design and delivery, supported by staff capability, ensuring that students are known, supported and engaged as individuals throughout their learning journey, and improving retention, progression and graduate outcomes. 
• Scalable, high-quality digital and flexible learning delivery 
  The ability to design, build and deliver online and blended provision in a repeatable, quality assured and cost-effective way, including the development of staff digital capability and confidence to deliver engaging and interactive learning that sustains strong relationships and a sense of community across all modes of delivery, enabling growth without eroding academic standards or student experience. 
• Operational excellence and service scalability 
  The ability to design, manage and continuously improve professional services through clear service ownership, standardised processes, effective use of digital systems and robust performance information, enabling efficiency, consistency and scalable support. 
• Partner acquisition and governance at scale 
  The ability to select, govern and grow UK and international collaborative and TNE partnerships in a disciplined manner that protects quality and reputation while generating sustainable returns.
• Recognised research expertise, oriented towards applied, collaborative research
  The ability to secure and deliver research and knowledge exchange activity in priority areas, supported by appropriate staff capability, time and collaboration, generating external income and real-world impact. 

These capabilities operate as a reinforcing system: weakness in one undermines the effectiveness of the others.  

Capabilities are only sustained over time if they are supported by distinctive management systems that motivate the right behaviours, allocate resources deliberately, clarify decision rights, and prevent strategic drift.  QMU will therefore design and maintain a small number of key and supporting management systems, aligned to the core capabilities set out above. 

The Key Enabling Management Systems are: 

• Portfolio and partnership management

Applying clear criteria, oversight and performance management to the on campus and online academic portfolio, and to collaborative and TNE activity, including programme and partner selection, development, continuation, expansion, redesign and exit, reducing and, where necessary, exiting persistently low-demand or financially unviable provision or partnerships. 

• Financial management and investment discipline

Ensuring that resources are allocated and monitored with discipline, enabling clear, evidence-based decisions to invest in priority areas of learning provision, research, knowledge exchange and innovation. 

• Student lifecycle management, insight and intervention

Providing timely, integrated insight into recruitment, engagement and progression, and enabling early intervention to improve student retention and outcomes. 

• People, culture and organisational development

Aligning the University’s people, culture and organisational design with its strategic priorities. This ensures that staff have the capability, support and clarity required to deliver the strategy, and that structures, behaviours and performance systems translate strategic intent into sustained, recognised and rewarded institutional performance. 

The Supporting Enabling Management Systems are: 

• Academic governance and quality enhancement 

Ensuring that academic standards are maintained, the quality of provision is assured, and continuous enhancement is embedded across the University. This supports the effective and credible delivery of the strategy by providing robust governance, evidence-informed improvement and alignment with sector expectations. 

• Digital and data infrastructure 

Integrated digital systems underpinned by a coherent enterprise architecture, enabling consistent data flows, interoperability and a single source of truth across student, academic and corporate functions. Cloud-based platforms, strengthened data governance, and improved analytics capability will support scalable, flexible delivery and informed decision-making. 

• Estate and commercial performance management

A strategically managed estate that optimises utilisation, contribution and return on investment, aligned to our delivery priorities. Through disciplined performance management, we will actively repurpose or intensify underperforming spaces, while prioritising high-quality, flexible environments that enhance the student experience. Commercial use of the estate will be pursued selectively to diversify income, without compromising academic delivery or student outcomes. 

• Integrated operational planning, performance and insight 

An integrated management system that translates strategic choices into coherent, prioritised actions, aligned through a clear cascade of objectives and KPIs tied to our winning aspiration and where-to-play/how-to-win choices. Performance will be tracked through disciplined, regular review, using a focused KPI set to test assumptions, reallocate resources, and stop or redesign activity that does not contribute to strategic outcomes. 

Leadership at all levels will be expected to act as system designers, ensuring that these management systems reinforce the strategic direction. 

The following priorities represent the University’s coherent action agenda for the strategy period, reflecting the choices set out above. 

Priority 1: Stabilise and strengthen core on campus provision 

• Fill SFC funded student numbers through targeted undergraduate programme development, increased applications and improved conversion on programmes with capacity, and above benchmark student retention. 
• Grow non SFC funded on-campus student numbers through strategic deployment of in-country representatives in key markets, pursued within the constraints of UKVI compliance requirements and wider geopolitical and market conditions. 
• Improve progression and retention through improved curriculum design, focused student support and early intervention with students at risk of withdrawal. 
• Align portfolio size, shape and delivery within sustainable parameters. 

Priority 2: Grow TNE and QMU Online provision responsibly 

• Expand TNE and QMU Online provision where quality, financial margin and partner capability are demonstrable. 
• Invest selectively in academic and professional capacity to support TNE and QMU Online delivery. 
• Strengthen risk management and oversight of partners’ compliance with financial agreements. 
• Improve financial margin through operating model redesign for higher volume activity. 
• Develop on-campus provision as a defining element of the QMU brand, strengthening the credibility and attractiveness of QMU Online and QMU Global. 

Priority 3: Diversify income through estate and commercial services 

• Develop a campus commercialisation masterplan. 
• Increase income from accommodation, conferences, events and educational and cultural partnerships. 
• Explore leasing and community-based uses of underutilised space and physical assets. 
• Integrate commercial activity with the University’s academic and civic mission. 
• Priority 4: Sustain and focus research activity and strengthen innovation and knowledge exchange 
• Sustain and focus research and knowledge exchange activity in areas of recognised strength, where there is potential for external funding, collaboration and real-world impact. 
• Increase consulting and evaluation activity where fees exceed direct costs and the work aligns with institutional priorities. 
• Use the Innovation Hub as a platform for partnership, impact and income generation. 

Priority 5: Implement the new operating model and digital architecture 

• Deliver the new operating model to improve efficiency and accountability. 
• Invest in core digital systems, including student records, workflow and integration architecture. 
• Rationalise governance and administration activity, automating and simplifying processes where they cannot be removed or combined. 
• Strengthen management information and real time insight. 
• Build digital and organisational change capability.