Aalto Handbook

Strategy and quality

Aalto University's living strategy is tailored for a world in motion. Our purpose, values, and way of working define our long-term direction. We choose development areas and actions that best drive us towards our purpose. As a community, we proactively and continuously re-evaluate our choices. The annual processes of our quality system in turn support the continuous evaluation and development of the living strategy. All community members are welcome to join the development of our living strategy annually.

Our strategy describes our purpose, values and ways of working as well as the focus of development.

Our purpose is to shape a sustainable future. We do high-quality research, excelling and making breakthroughs in and across science, art, technology and business. We spark the game changers of tomorrow and renew society with research-based knowledge, creativity and an entrepreneurial mindset. All our work is guided by the values of the university: responsibility, courage, and collaboration.

We make joint plans for the upcoming 1+3 years as part of our annual processes. These plans of all schools and joint strategic areas are published on Our plan website. Our plan is updated annually during the University Dialogue process held in spring. We regularly organise community events to share information about the development of the strategy and to gather ideas, observations, weak signals and trends that may be relevant to the future of the university.

Our strategy webpages include our strategy, and our strategic plans and welcome everyone to participate!

Aalto University's future is built upon a foundation of high-quality research, education, impact and shared values – responsibility, courage, and collaboration. The purpose of the university is to shape a sustainable future.

Our quality system is based on our quality policy

pursuit of excellence in all activities
every member of the Aalto community contributes to the common purpose
continuous assessments and development of all activities and management
systematic and shared ways to ensure high quality and effectiveness in the activities

The quality management system is embedded in our daily activities and it assures the efficient implementation of our strategy and the continuous development of our activities within research, education, impact, cross-cutting approaches and enablers. The tools we utilise include a long-term evaluation plan for internal and external evaluations, feedback from various stakeholders, the university's annual clock, a clear quality policy and PDCA as our operating principle.

Our annual processes (University Preview, University Review and University Dialogue) further strengthen the link between the strategy and quality system. We continuously develop our living strategy based on the inputs we gather annually from the preview of emerging trends and developments in our operating environment (University Preview), the review of strategy implementation during the previous year (University Review) and discussion on setting targets for upcoming 1+3 years (University Dialogue). Our annual clock sets the timetables for our activities. Read more below.

The quality system of Aalto University is an entity of policies, procedures and processes aimed at safeguarding and improving the quality of the university activities, its education, its research and other activities.

Aalto Handbook