Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director of Engagement and Advancement
A number of issues were discussed under the Vice-Chancellor’s Business section at the start of this week’s meeting:
- It was announced that the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE, would be leaving the University at the end of March 2020, to take up a role in London where he needed to be based ahead, for family reasons. The Vice-Chancellor expressed his regret at the news, but said he fully understood the circumstances behind the decision, and on behalf of UEB expressed his deep gratitude for the tremendous contribution Bashir has made to Southampton over the last 20 years.
- The Chief Operating Officer announced that the Director of Faculty Operations will be leaving the University at the end of this month after 26 years’ service.
- UEB discussed communication to staff and students ahead of industrial action, due to start on 25 November. A dedicated SharePoint site has been set up to keep students and staff up-to-date with developments, and to provide answers to common questions.
On the main agenda today:
- UEB considered a paper on 2020 Recruitment and Admissions, which outlined the current position in terms of admissions for 2020, following the 15 October Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) deadline; outlined priority actions that need to be taken to improve our recruitment and admissions outturn on 2019 entry; highlighted a number of areas that require further scrutiny and early planning, including the potential for further significant growth in international post-graduate taught (PGT) as well as the Pre-Sessional English (PSE) programmes, and detailed new activities requiring further UEB discussion and support ahead.
- UEB strongly supported a self-assessment and future two-year action plan for the University’s Technician Commitment, which recognises the critical importance of these highly skilled individuals to the success of the University, whose technical excellence underpins the quality of research, teaching and enterprise activities, and improves the student experience. The action plan, to be delivered over the next two years, will focus on areas including roles, structure, career development and visibility.
- As part of UEB’s regular reporting of progress against business plans and strategies from each area of the University, there were updates from the Deans of the Faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences, both of which showed strong progress being made against their respective strategic objectives.
- Finally, there was a regular monthly update on our progress against the Athena SWAN project plan for renewal of submission in 2020, and the monthly review of Health, Safety & Risk incidents. UEB was also briefed on the weekend fire at a commercially-run student accommodation block in Bolton.