The Challenge

The incoming Vice Chancellor sought to lead a participative strategy that would reposition NTU from its identity as a former polytechnic to a genuinely leading modern university.

This required engagement across academic and professional staff, students, alumni and civic partners. Locally and globally, alongside a renewed emphasis on social mobility and innovation in underserved communities.

The Approach

The University Executive Team identified key strategic themes including Lifelong Learning and NTU’s role in Society and Digital.

GameShift designed and stewarded the overall process. Combining disciplined inquiry, facilitated engagement and structured challenge to stretch thinking while remaining aligned with institutional culture.

This included:

• Designing and facilitating large-scale engagements across the university, including conferences of over 300 staff
• Working directly with the executive team to strengthen leadership capability and ownership of the strategic direction
• Supporting internal teams to translate strategic ambition into embedded practice

GameShift continues to work with NTU to ensure that strategic intent remains active and integrated within the university’s organisational DNA.

The Outcome

The university implemented its strategic ambitions and subsequently received multiple national awards, including Modern University of the Year in 2018 and again in 2023.

It has also been recognised across areas including student experience, sustainability and civic contribution.

The Vice Chancellor noted the significance of this work in shaping NTU’s trajectory.

Perhaps most telling is the cultural shift: from a university constrained by inherited assumptions to one confident in its identity and capacity for innovation. The term “Trent,” once viewed as a legacy of the past, is now used as a confident marker of institutional identity.