Advancement and Institutional Strategy
Institutional strategy refers to the long-term goals of an institution. Advancement can be used to support institutional strategy by taking these high-level objectives and translating them into more focused objectives that can be developed into specific advancement activities. For instance, if your institutional strategy involves expanding particular areas of research, advancement activities could involve reaching out to companies and individuals involved in those specific areas.
In the podcast for this section, you can hear to how advancement professionals have translated the aims and objectives of their particular institutions into advancement activities:
- Wits: works with industries that the university is close to such as mining
- LBS: works with alumni who go on to work for corporations
- Strathmore: has used advancement as a way to expand since it became a university (innovation/entrepreneurship)
- UCT: emphasises institutional reputation as one of the top universities in Africa (reputation)
The podcast featured Amil Mohanan (Loughborough University, UK), Peter Bezuidenhout (Director of Development and Fundraising, University of the Witwatersrand, ZA), Henry Onukwuba (Senior Fellow, Lagos Business School, Nigeria), Eric Saulo (Director of Advancement and External Relations, Strathmore University, Kenya), Ronica Ramsout (Head of Research and Information Systems, University of Cape Town, ZA).