Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director of Engagement and Advancement
A busy agenda for the last UEB meeting of 2019.
A number of issues were discussed under the Vice-Chancellor’s Business section at the start of this week’s meeting:
- There was a discussion about the likely impact on the higher education sector following last week’s general election. This week’s Queen’s Speech will be watched carefully for any signals around funding for research, the level of tuition fees, and any changes to the visa regime for international students and staff. We already have an established University Brexit Task Force that will continue to monitor closely the implications of the UK’s now near-certain exit from the EU on 31 January 2020, and in particular, the implications of the December 2020 deadline for agreeing a trade deal, with the continuing risk of a no-deal scenario.
- The Vice-Chancellor updated UEB on what has been happening at national level in respect of the current period of industrial dispute affecting a number of universities, including Southampton. He also drew UEB’s attention to the publication last Friday of the second report of the USS pension Joint Expert Panel (JEP), a panel set up by UCU and UUK following the 2018 industrial dispute. The panel’s report makes a series of interlocking recommendations covering the governance of the pension scheme, the valuation methodology and the way forward.
- There was a discussion about the draft agenda for the annual University Council and Executive Awayday in January. This will include a strategic review by the Vice-Chancellor, including his reflections after three months at Southampton, and the priorities ahead; a detailed look at the external environment we are operating in; a major update on our future Estates Strategy; and a review of the effectiveness of the University’s current key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Finally, the Vice-Chancellor thanked all those across the University involved in the ceremony for the Installation of Ruby Wax as our new Chancellor on 10 December. He said it had been a very successful event with an inspiring address by Ruby, who is looking forward to getting further involved with Southampton ahead.
On the main agenda today:
- The continuation of an important strategic conversation about Sustainability. In addition to the widespread initiatives already underway, UEB agreed a set of principles to inform all decision-making across the University, to embed Sustainability in everything we do and to ensure we meet the need for taking urgent action:
- Ensure transparent emission accounting, reporting and communication of progress, benchmarked and against clear targets, on an annual basis.
- Mitigate emissions at a rate that contributes to the global imperative to achieve climate neutrality.
- Document sustainability harms and benefits in every decision, align decisions with our ambition to mitigate climate and ecological impact and our overall University strategy.
- UEB was keen that the overarching Environment and Sustainability Strategy being developed does more than just signal good intentions. Every initiative needs to have meaningful impact and have relevance at a personal, as well as institutional level. For example, by far the largest element of our carbon emissions comes from poorly insulated building on our campuses. A focus on remedying that issue would have an immediate impact. Overall, full agreement that there is more we can and should do.
- The Executive Director of iSolutions and Transformation updated UEB on a proposed new Target Operating Model and organisation structure for iSolutions. The proposed new structure, which was endorsed by UEB, follows a period of extensive consultation with staff, Trade Unions and internal stakeholders, as a result of which a number of significant changes were made to the original proposal.
- For the final session of the current round of 2019-20 ’regular reporting’, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Science and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine provided an update on the delivery and performance against their respective strategic objectives.
- UEB also reviewed the regular Finance Pack of management information; approved changes to company directorships as a result of the Chief Operating Officer leaving this month; noted the Health & Safety incident report for November; and received an update on plans to move our current Blackboard virtual learning environment and learning management system to a cloud-based service.