Lincoln College Strategic Plan, 2022-27
Our mission and values
We believe students with outstanding academic potential come from all backgrounds. We seek to offer the widest possible access to the education we provide.
We offer our Tutors both support and autonomy. We aim to recruit and retain the best Tutors, who are attracted to the College by its reputation, its autonomy, and by the support it provides to Fellows in their teaching and research.
Our Tutors afford our students the opportunity of a unique experience of personal teaching and learning. We believe the advancement of learning is best achieved by the tutorial model of teaching in small groups and support for academic research.
Lincoln College is an integral part of the University of Oxford. We seek to contribute to society through the pursuit of our objects:
- The advancement of education, study, and research, in particular through the provision, support and maintenance of a college in Oxford;
- The advancement of religion, including the provision and support of a Chapel in accordance with the principles of the Church of England.
We value difference. Lincoln College is committed to fostering an inclusive culture that promotes equality, values diversity, and maintains a working, learning, and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff, Fellows, and students are respected.
We are committed to ensuring that members of the College have freedom within the law to question and test received wisdom and to put forward new ideas and controversial or unpopular opinions, without placing their jobs or privileges in jeopardy; and to apply the principles of justice and fairness within the College.
We believe in achieving our aims sustainably. Lincoln College is working towards an environmentally sustainable future.
Our 2022–27 strategic plan lists our goals under the headings that follow; our priorities are shown in bold font.
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In order to achieve our mission and live up to our values, we need to ensure that the College is on a secure financial footing. This is more vital than ever in a challenging economic environment, and where one of our main sources of income, UK undergraduate student fees, has not increased in a decade. In spite of this, we have made considerable progress towards our goal of ‘self-sufficiency’, notably by: endowing a significant number of Fellowships; establishing bursaries and scholarships for our students; and completing two significant building projects, the Berrow Foundation Building and the Mitre refurbishment, alongside other restoration projects in the Hall and Chapel. We have achieved these successes while also growing our overall endowment. As we approach our 600th anniversary, we aim for financial growth in order to maintain the value of our endowment in real terms, and with it our ability to support our ambitions for the future of Lincoln. We will achieve this by:
- Stewarding our endowment, to maintain its value (adjusted for inflation) by:
o Aiming for an average return on investment of 4% above inflation as measured by CPI.
o Aiming for an overall increase of 25% in the value of the endowment as a result of donations and investment returns.
- Carefully reviewing our investments in land and property by:
o Assessing opportunities to sell or develop our properties.
o Allocating necessary resources to continue to maintain our historic buildings and to develop the infrastructure within College to meet our requirements.
- Becoming a more sustainable College by:
o Measuring our carbon usage and examining and considering a net-zero carbon commitment through the work of our Sustainability Sub-Committee.
o Undertaking to monitor and, where possible, reduce our investment in fossil fuels (from 0.4% at 2022).
o Managing our energy usage for greater efficiency through consideration of heat-management systems.
o Maintaining and improving the biodiversity on our sites.
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Lincoln is one of the smaller colleges in the University in terms of subjects taught, but it is of average size with respect to overall student numbers. Our goal is to strengthen and deepen the quality of what we do and ensure that the opportunities the College is able to offer are accessible to academically qualified students regardless of financial means. During the next five years, we will achieve this by:
- Continuing to pursue and develop our Access and Outreach strategy by:
o Growing the overall numbers of UK-domiciled state-school applications by at least 4% annually over the next five years.
o Aiming to increase the number of minority ethnic students that apply to and are admitted by the College.
- Ensuring that our students receive sufficient financial support by:
o Increasing the number and value of undergraduate bursaries.
o Increasing the number and value of graduate bursaries.
o Launching a new programme, The Bridge, to support our most talented undergraduate students who wish to stay at the College to undertake a Master’s degree.
- Strengthening and deepening our provision for existing subjects to offer the best educational experience for all our students, by:
o Maintaining our new Study Skills programme.
o Strengthening our academic reputation so that we are consistently recognised as amongst the best Oxford colleges in our students’ University examinations results.
o Giving consideration to making more of our academic strengths in areas and subjects that bring different disciplines together, such as Architectural History, Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Book Studies, Biomedicine.
- Supporting students to develop their abilities outside their academic studies, by:
o Maintaining support for sports, the arts, music, and charitable activities through the Annual Fund and support of the student societies involved with these activities, including VacProj, the Choir, and the Lincoln College Boat Club.
o Reviewing our welfare provision and its organisation.
o Maintaining and developing the LincUp platform to connect students with alumni.
o Supporting careers talks, mentoring, and coaching for students by alumni and others, including in the public sector.
- Improving library facilities and access to them by:
o Providing enhanced access to the main Library through the installation of a lift.
o Creating additional library space and places (including for alumni) through the conversion of part of the OUP Bookshop to reading rooms.
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Lincoln is proud of its international connections which date back to the 19th Century. As the first College to establish a Middle Common Room, we take particular pride in the size and diversity of our graduate student body. Our Fellowship is also international in composition and outlook. As we approach 2027, we will enhance our international profile by:
- Maintaining a strong relationship with our alumni throughout the world through good communications and facilitating connections with the College.
- Establishing a Visiting Fellowship Programme to encourage academic interactions with other institutions.
- Providing more travel grants for students, to encourage them to engage with different countries and cultures.
- Providing additional scholarships for international graduate students, including those from the European Union, in areas linked to the academic interests of our Fellows, where possible.
- Improving our facilities for international students by:
o Considering whether we have sufficient accommodation for graduate students.
o Ensuring our Kitchen provides variety of food to suit different requirements.
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One of Lincoln’s strengths is its collegiate character and the positive contributions made by all parts of our community: Fellows, students, staff, and alumni. In the period to 2027, we shall seek to improve what we do by:
- Strengthening our Fellowship. We shall do this by:
o Endowing all Tutorial Fellowships and seeking to add one Darby (Career Development) Fellow/Lecturer in each subject.
o Providing adequate resources for our Fellows and students to allow them to have the equipment they need, and by supporting them to attend conferences and courses.
o Devising a programme of mentoring for new, fixed-term Fellows, and by offering personal and career development support through mentoring and guidance for all Fellows who want it.
- Revising our Statutes and By-Laws to bring them up to date and so ensuring they provide an effective means of running the College.
- Ensuring we have adequate buildings and facilities by:
o Upgrading the Rector’s Lodgings so that they are suitable as full-time accommodation for the Rector.
o Upgrading the Kitchen and the boilers in the Grove to improve their suitability and sustainability.
o Providing more housing for new Fellows (limited to their first two years of Fellowship).
o Providing more teaching rooms for Fellows.
o Ensuring we have adequate accommodation for our postgraduates and married students.
o Maintaining our existing buildings and rooms to a high standard.
- Improving College infrastructure by:
o Ensuring that our website and communications on all media are effective in supporting our strategic aims.
o Maintaining and improving our IT services and online security.
o Ensuring that all parts of the historic main site are fully used (after any necessary refurbishment).
o Monitoring that all donations are carefully accounted for and that donors receive appropriate recognition.
- Valuing our staff by:
o Continuing to implement the recommendations of the Living Wage Foundation.
o Reviewing pay differentials and employment conditions.
- Setting annual objectives with regard to Equality and Diversity through the Single Equality Scheme.