STRATEGY
& PERFORMANCE

Embracing sustainability across our practices

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are fully aligned with the aims that our University wishes to pursue. Our actions are driven by a strategic framework, proactive planning and top-level commitment to become a leading advocate of sustainability in Cyprus and globally.

In the 2020 review of the University’s Strategic Plan, the University Council approved the inclusion of a new Action in the short-term action plan. Specifically, Action 13 states: “The Council of the University identifies that the SDGs directly match and overlap with the core values and goals of Frederick University and to this end they should be strongly promoted and adopted within the operations. Actions should be undertaken to ensure that there is widespread understanding of these goals among the community, identification at departmental level of specific goals that can be served and rethinking of curriculum development and research directions to better promote and support them. Specific policies and decisions should be taken at governance level to ensure that the University leads by example towards serving the SDGs”.

To achieve this, a standing committee has been set up, headed by the University President and comprising academics, administrative staff, students and external advisors.

The University has set specific targets for each Goal. These are either targets that assess whether specific outcomes have been achieved (e.g. specify a policy for inclusion of transgender people) or performance indicators that are tracked (e.g. reduce the carbon emission levels caused by the University operations). A systematic process has also been established in order to record our performance against all these targets during each evaluation period.

The identification of targets for each Goal is defined across the below dimensions. Specifying the dimension of a target enables a sharper focus on the resources that must assume responsibility for its achievement and simplifies the tracking process.

RESEARCH

Academic research conducted by the University and consulting activities and collaborations with Government, NGOs and other stakeholders.

EDUCATION

The delivery of teaching either in formal education through the programs of study the University offers, or through informal and non-formal activities such as lifelong learning actions.

LEADERSHIP

The local society and the interconnection of the University community with its environment including policy development and advocacy.

GOVERNANCE & OPERATIONS

Policies of the University with the aim of adopting best practices and leading by example through its governance and operations in the effort to promote the SDGs.

Sustainability Reports

Our targets, performance, and progress achieved against the targets we have set can be found in our Sustainability Reports which also include an outline of the activities that have been conducted in the past years for the 17 SDGs.

In our first Sustainability Report in 2020, we had set out a set of targets for 2022, organized under the four specified dimensions of activity; namely Education, Research, Leadership, and Operations.

In the 2021 Sustainability Report, we had chosen not to review or update the goals that were set and maintain them as they were described in the previous report. Following the presentation of the goals that were set, an interim assessment of the progress achieved in 2021 was provided in this report.

We provided a full and detailed review in the 2022 Sustainability Report, with an even more ambitious set of goals for 2025.

In the 2023 Sustainability Report, we present an interim evaluation of these targets and provide a snapshot of our progress toward achieving them.

Our commitment to the ambitious targets set for 2022-2025 remains steadfast, and our 2024 Sustainability Report captures our mid-term progress on achieving these targets.