I'm James Purnell, President and Vice-Chancellor
of the University of the Arts London
UAL's colleges were founded in the 19th century
with a clear social purpose.
"To change society through our knowledge and creativity."
And in 2003, when our colleges became a university,
they continued to serve that purpose.
And we do so still today.
Bringing beauty into people's lives.
Solving small, everyday and big complex ones, too.
adding value to businesses big and small through our creativity.
And creating new businesses as well.
Today, our social purpose is unchanged.
It remains changing society
through our knowledge and creativity.
But if we are to continue changing society,
we ourselves must continue to change.
Over the past two years,
a lot has changed in further
and higher education.
The pandemic was the greatest
disruption to the sector since
the Second World War.
New methods of teaching and learning emerged.
and at UAL, like everywhere else,
we had to teach both in-person and online
at the same time.
Through the amazing work of our staff, our students
we handled these changes well.
We discovered new ways to serve our students.
and we found a new hope from that success with online learning.
A hope that in future we can reach new groups of students
who currently can't come to UAL.
The pandemic changed the world beyond higher education, too.
It exposed the vulnerabilities of our interwoven, connected world.
Over the next decade, new technologies
will continue to disrupt that world.
Social movements like Black Lives Matter
will aspire to change it for the better.
We must be ready.
I believe you now has an important,
vital role to play.
Britain is a knowledge economy built on creativity.
London is central to that economy
and a bridge to the rest of the world.
UAL, based in London, will be its cornerstone
We will build that cornerstone on a simple belief ...
that creativity isn't for the few – that it's for everyone
UAL has been named one of the hardest universities to get into.
And some institutions would be proud of that.
Well, we aren't.
We don't want to be known for our exclusivity.
We want to be known for our inclusivity.
So in this strategy, we have a simple goal
to bring the benefits of a UAL education
to anyone who can benefit from it.
That means creating a university that works for everyone.
One that expands both access and quality.
We can reach out to those too often denied access
to a creative education.
We can help build a more equal economy.
and we can work with others to solve big challenges
like climate justice.
It has always been the task of creative people
to imagine and prototype the future.
And this is the essence of our new strategy -
"The world needs creativity"
It has three guiding policies.
They identify both the challenge and the opportunity for UAL.
We also tasked nine students with creating work,
which responds to our strategy,
and you'll see their work in these videos and online.