Structure

Strategic planning was introduced for the first time into the Greek Higher Education with the Law 4653/2020. After several modifications and adjustments (Law 4812/2021, Decision 154781/Z1/30-11-2021), the Strategic Planning Unit's mission, structure and function was set under the Law 4957/2022, as modified with the Law 5094/2024. Each HEI's SP Unit, is responsible for the implementation of the Institution's long-term vision and aspirations for continuous progress, improvement, excellence, resilience and competitivenes, taking into account the Interantional trends, allong with the European and National Strategy for the Higher Education, Research and Innovation. SP Units not only are interconnected with the respective HEI's committees, academic and administrative units, but are also accountable for the collection, evaluation and monitoring of their strategic and operational plans that have to be aligned with the overalla strategic plan and its annual operational programming.

The Strategic Planning Unit (SPU) has been operating at Technical University of Crete (TUC) since 2021, and was officially established in July 2023 (Government Gazette 4428/B'/10-07-2023) as an independent unit at Departmental level, reporting directly to the Rector, and cooperating with TUC Board, in accordance with the articles 216 and 224 of the law 4957/2022. The mission of the Strategic Planning Unit is to draw up the strategic plan of the Institution and to implement the program planning agreements of the Law 4653/2020 (A' 12), article 15.

The SP Unit is internally structured by:

A) the Strategic Planning Committee and

B) the Strategic Planning Unit.

A) The Strategic Planning Committee

is established by decision of the Board of Management and consists of:a) the Rector, b) the Vice-Rectors, c) up to four (4) members of the Teaching Staff, of the rank of Professor or Associate Professor, representing different scientific fields taught at the Higher Education Institution The term of office of the Committee is four years and parallel to the term of office of the Rector of the Higher Education Institution. In the meetings of the Committee the Executive Director and the Head of the Strategic Planning Unit participate without the right to vote.

The Committee's responsibilities are:

a) the preparation of a strategic plan proposal for the academic and research development of the Institution within the framework of the National Strategy for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, as well as the European and international strategy in the field of higher education and its submission to the TUC Board for its approval, in accordance with article 224,
b) the evaluation of the proposed development plans of the academic and research units, as well as the digital transformation plans (in accordance with the article 227), the equal access of people with disabilities and special educational needs (in accordance with the article 226), the sustainable development (in accordance with the article 228) and their harmonization with the TUC strategic plan (according to article 224),
c) the preparation of the proposals for program planning agreements (article 15 of Law 4653/2020) and their submission to the Board for their approval, as well as the cooperation, during their implementation, with the Hellenic Authority for Higher Education (HAHE) and the Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs, and Sports,
d) the coordination and monitoring of the implementation process of: da) the TUC strategic plan, db) the program planning agreements (as desribed at the article 15 Law 4653/2020) and d) the annual TUC target setting.

B) The Strategic Planning Unit

is comprised of the members of TUC administrative staff, and the head of the depratment is selected among the TUC permanent employees. In particular, the responsibilities of the Strategic Planning Service are:

a) the execution of the decisions and the secretarial support of the Strategic Planning Committee,
b) the collection, processing and analysis of data from the academic and administrative units, which is necessary for the drafting and documentation of the strategic plan, as well as the enforcement of the monitoring procedures for its implementation,
c) the coordination of the utilization of all available funding sources for the implementation of the strategic plan and the program planning agreements (article 15 of Law 4653/2020),
d) the monitoring of the progress of the implementation of the plans for: e) the digital transformation (article 227), b) the equal access of persons with disabilities and persons with special educational needs (article 226) and c) the sustainable development (article 228),
e) the monitoring of the progress and the evolution of the projects related to the development of the infrastructure and TUC equipment,
f) the monitoring of national, European and international developments reagarding the strategy for education, research and innovation in higher education and the relevant information of the academic, research and the other relevant units of the Institution,
g) the cooperation with the Quality Assurance Unit for the preparation of the annual report of achievements for the distribution of the yealry national funding of the Greek HEIs., in accordance with article 16 of Law 4653/2020,
h) the preparation of reports aiming at supporting the academic, research and overall TUC development and relevant activities,
i) the collaboration with the TUC Digital Governance Unit for the development of an information system, which facilitates the monitoring of the strategic plan implementation, the program planning agreements and TUC target setting, and finally,
j) the exercise of any other activity predicted by TUC organizational structure.

TUC's Head of Strategic Planning Unit, Dr. Eleftheria Karagianni, and TUC's Executive Director, Dr. Maria Gizeli, participate in SPU Committee's meetings with no right to vote.

The SP Unit is internally structured by:

A) the Strategic Planning Committee and

B) the Strategic Planning Unit.

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