About us
Planning across the University
Planning comprises a wide spectrum of activities that take place across the University involving many colleagues and ranging from student number planning within individual programmes, resource planning at School and Faculty level, through to the development of the University’s long term strategy.
The Directorate of Planning works closely with the University Executive (UE) and colleagues across the Faculties and Professional Services to champion integrated planning at the University level, with a particular focus on:
- Facilitating the development of the University strategy
- Monitoring the progress of the University towards the strategy
- Governing, and supporting the delivery of, the portfolio of key projects that underpin the delivery of our strategy
- Providing assurance to the Office for Students, in particular with regard to the provision of statutory data
There are four teams within the Directorate of Planning, working together to safeguard the delivery of the strategy:
Integrated planning team
The integrated planning team is responsible for:
- Supporting the development, implementation and review of the University's strategy through shared accountability
- Integrating planning areas such as student numbers, teaching and learning, research, financial, IT, and people into the planning and budgeting process
- Facilitating strategic conversations by bringing together data, trends, and performance metrics to achieve the University ambitions
We achieve this by fostering collaboration across departments and directorates, breaking down silos to work toward shared goals. At our core, we value adaptability and agility, building resilience to meet future challenges while safeguarding the University’s long-term academic and societal impact.
Business intelligence team
The business intelligence (BI) team is responsible for:
- The definition and production of a University-level performance dashboard for UE to monitor performance against the strategic measures and report this to the Board
- The definition and production of a series of dashboards to support Executive Committees, Faculties, PS and functional areas in monitoring performance at a more detailed level
- Championing new ways of working including communities of practice for analysts across the University; staging key data in dashboards; data mapping and modelling to reduce operational risk and vulnerability across our fragmented data landscape
- A range of specialist analyses driven from student data (for example regarding access and participation) and UK and global benchmarking data to inform strategic and operational plans and policy
Statutory reporting team
The statutory reporting team is responsible for:
- Submitting the University’s student HESA, HESES and related returns, that define our student population for the Office for Students, our regulator, and inform the teaching funding we receive from the government
- Raising awareness of statutory data considerations as we renovate technology and operations across the University, including the sector Data Futures agenda
- A range of specialist University level analyses, driven from the most accurate and complete definition of our student population available to the University (student profile, SSRs, non-continuation, tariff et al)
- Specialist knowledge of University league tables
Strategic change team
The Strategic Change Office (SCO) is responsible for:
- Facilitating the creation of, and governing, the University strategic change (project) portfolio
- Introducing best practice methods to strengthen the University approach to change delivery
- Holding projects to account through the gateway review process, and Strategic Change Sub-Committee
- Providing delivery support for projects within the purview of the SCO