Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director of Engagement and Advancement
This week’s UEB started with an update from Alex Neill, Vice-President (Education), on Confirmation, Clearing and Adjustment for 2019. There will be a number of competing tensions to balance: to maintain and ideally increase our average tariff which will improve our relative position in league tables; to achieve or ideally exceed our student numbers plan; while also needing to ensure our focus on widening access and participation.
This will all be in the context of applications to Southampton beginning to recover in 2019, but with a patchy picture across subject areas, and UCAS estimating fewer applicants will be available in Clearing due to the demographic dip of 18-year-olds in the UK.
An enormous amount of work is already underway, with significant marketing activity planned. Alex Neill will be the Executive lead for this critical Confirmation, Clearing and Adjustment period.
Next, a discussion about the agenda and content of a UEB Awayday on 8 July, which will also be attended by Professor Mark E. Smith, who joins as our new President and Vice-Chancellor on 1 October. It will be an opportunity to share and review the underpinning Faculty and Professional Services business plans for 2019-20, to understand how they will join up to support delivery of the University’s Strategy.
There will also be a stock-take review of the University’s progress in achieving its strategy, recognising that the political, economic and regulatory landscape has changed considerably since the strategy was launched in 2016. There will clearly need to be a particular focus on our key performance indicators (KPIs) around Collegiality, Financial Sustainability, and Quality, all of which will require sustained attention ahead if they are to be delivered successfully.
Every UEB meeting will now have a standing agenda item on Staff Engagement. This week UEB continued its discussion from last week on Faculty and Professional Services action plans, and some of the themes UEB will champion as overarching Commitments ahead. Deans and Executive Directors were asked to ensure they have mechanisms for direct staff feedback in place, which could be directly fed back to UEB meetings. These ideas will be developed further and then discussed at the Senior Leaders’ Forum in early July before being shared across the University.
Other items: there was a discussion about a refreshed International Strategy draft, which will now undergo further consultation; UEB endorsed a new Responsible Research Metrics Policy which will now be tabled for discussion at Senate; the Q3 Executive expenses report was approved for publication next month, and will be found here; and UEB noted the annual report of the Genetic Modification and Biological Safety Committee (GMBSC).
Finally, UEB was advised in confidence that the following morning would see the launch, live on ITV, of the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, and the announcement of a major collaboration with Southampton as part of the Foundations’ plans to create a dedicated global allergen research hub.