President's weekly update
21 February 2019
Prior to our formal Board of Governors meeting, there was a strategic briefing with Board members on students, teaching and learning. As part of this, members met groups of students without any senior staff present to hear what they feel is good and not so good about our University. We are following up on their comments. Some Board members had a tour of the recently renovated Students’ Union building where the meetings were held.
At the formal Board meeting we had an update on activities in the Faculty of Humanities from the Vice-President and Dean, Professor Keith Brown. We also discussed the uncertainties and pressures facing the higher education sector, including cost inflation, pensions, the Augar review, international competition and Brexit. The Board approved the merger of the Schools of Social Sciences and Law and the changes to Statutes and Ordinances as recommended by Senate. The Board meeting was interrupted briefly by two protests from students concerned about investments in fossil fuels and in companies that they believe contribute to Israeli actions in Palestine. We listened to them and our Board Finance Committee (which determines our investment policy) will continue its considerations of ethical investments.
I attended the Russell Group of Vice-Chancellors Board meeting in London. We spoke with Dame Shirley Pearce who is chairing a review of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). We expressed our concerns over the methodology and that the measures used for TEF do not assess teaching excellence. The dinner was attended by Chris Skidmore, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation. He has already visited a significant number of universities (including ours), is clearly a great supporter of the higher education sector and recognises our concerns about potential threats to universities.
At the Russell Group Board meeting itself, we spent a long time discussing the Augar review of post-18 education and funding, though it is still unclear whether the report from the review will come out in the next month or so, as anticipated, or be delayed until the Comprehensive Spending Review in the autumn. It is also unclear whether there will be a consultation following publication. We also discussed planning for Brexit, potential changes to immigration policy and the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).
Pensions are an incredibly important issue and a major concern for all of our staff. USS has just issued further information to its members on changes to the scheme. This explains the current and potential future positions for the scheme and the roles of the USS Trustee board and The Pensions Regulator (TPR). The main responsibility of the Trustee is to ensure that there is enough money to pay benefits earned in the scheme, so it has a duty to act prudently to protect our pensions. TPR also has to ensure that the scheme is funded for current and future members. Based on the 2017 valuation, member and employer contributions are due to rise in three phases. A further valuation is in progress based on March 2018 data. USS is consulting with employers to assess the level of risk they could accept and arrangements to protect earned benefits if investment returns are not as good as hoped for. The outcome of the new evaluation and consultation may mitigate the contribution increases already agreed for October 2019 and April 2020, but this cannot be guaranteed and universities are in a much risker position than they were in 2017. As with any such scheme, if there is a deficit it can only be met by higher contributions, by additional risk or by a change in benefits (or some combination of these), none of which would be welcome.
Professor Clive Agnew, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, and I visited the School of Environment, Education and Development where international students raised concerns about differential fees (I explained that universities are supported by the British taxpayers), fossil fuel investments and access to spaces for study. On the latter we agreed that we should develop an inventory of the spaces available. Staff were very pleased with the developments of our campus -especially the green spaces, praised our Inspiring Leaders Programme but suggested we should have a focus on ‘how we better treat each other’ including the many support staff who interface with all of us and with students.
In a session with President’s Doctoral Scholars I was asked questions on a broad range of topics. These included whether our University has met its strategic goals, threats to higher education, investment in fossil fuels, gender pay gaps, Brexit, what measures we have taken to fight modern slavery and human trafficking, our position on widening participation, supporting student parents and carers, the time to complete a PhD, whether we will provide two year degrees, student mental health problems, pensions, academic careers and how it feels to be such a well-known scientist - they had seen my large picture on the Strand which has been posted by King’s College, London of which I am an alumna.
Alan Ferns, Associate Vice-President for Reputation and External Relations, and I met our local MP Lucy Powell. We discussed the recent Civic Universities Commission report in which we featured, our work with local schools and communities, including changes to the membership of our General Assembly to include more local representatives and plans for our North Campus.
Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor