Author: Philip Greenish, Chair of Council
This blog provides an informal report to the University community of the September meeting of the university’s Council. Minutes will be posted on the University website after approval at the November meeting.
Council has instituted a new routine for its meetings which will now start with a discussion dinner the evening before the meeting, a half day in a faculty or in professional services division and then the Council meeting. This will allow Council more time to discuss strategic issues, to see and meet people in the university front line and to be more visible to the university community.
In September, the Chief Executive of Southampton City Council, Ms Sandy Hopkins, joined us for a discussion over dinner on the City’s priorities and the relationship between us, focusing on how we can best work together to our mutual benefit. We spent the whole of the following morning (27 September) in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Senior faculty staff briefed us on the full range of their work including aspects which are providing them with particular challenges. Council was very impressed and unanimous in its gratitude to Jane Falkingham and her team for an exceptionally valuable morning.
We were joined at our Council meeting in the afternoon by the incoming President & Vice Chancellor Professor Mark E. Smith (as an observer on this occasion). The meeting began as usual with a comprehensive report from the President and Vice-Chancellor (Interim), Professor Mark Spearing. He covered many national and local matters including the impact of the current, extraordinary political environment. His report also outlined the admissions and clearing process and results to date and he updated Council on the ongoing discussions around the USS pension scheme.
The Students’ Union president, Emily Harrison, summarised activity from the union, noting that it was the middle of an extremely busy freshers’ week. She briefed Council on new student support networks which is good news in light of the high-profile focus on student mental health and support.
Council then received and discussed the annual report from Professor Alex Neil, VP Education, on the university’s education strategy. Implementation of this is crucial to our aim of a UK top 10 league table position. We were pleased to see progress on 10-Year Plan projects and some “quick wins” such as training for new lecturers on delivering teaching to large classes, especially for those for whom English is not their first language. We reviewed progress on NSS and discussed plans for further improvement. Following this report, Council also received a short report on student recruitment which included the latest, but still provisional figures. We will receive the final figures on student recruitment in November.
We then considered and discussed at length a comprehensive report on UoS Malaysia, presented by its CEO, Professor Rebecca Taylor. We noted many positive developments over the past 12 months across aspects of the campus, its staffing, its offer to students and its academic delivery. The main purpose was to discuss and advise on the development of the business case which examines options for the future of our Malaysian operation including its scale and location. The comprehensive business case will now be developed leading to a more detailed report and further consideration of the Malaysian Campus at our November meeting.
Council then agreed to support the change in ownership structure of the part of the National Oceanography Centre owned by UKRI/NERC (75%), which has been proposed by UKRI, subject to finalising a few outstanding operational issues. We were careful to ensure that there would be no detriment to the university consequent of their revised ownership structure and that we can continue to develop this internationally renowned partnership.
The final major item was consideration of changes to the PASNAS pension scheme arrangements. Council has regularly discussed changes to PASNAS over the years, recognising the crucial importance of ensuring that eligible staff have suitable pension arrangements.
In the rest of the meeting, we covered risk management, Council’s annual review of its own, and its sub-committees’ terms of reference, and some restricted HR matters.
This is a short report of a complex meeting which laid out some groundwork for some upcoming major decisions over the coming 12 months. I hope colleagues find it helpful.
Finally, Council expressed their thanks to Professor Mark Spearing for his steady and insightful leadership as interim VC, this being his last Council meeting in this post.
Philip Greenish, Chair of Council
October 2019