Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director Engagement and Advancement
Today’s meeting was again divided between campus operational issues considered on a Gold Command basis as part of the University’s business continuity planning, with other issues considered under normal UEB business.
A number of important issues were covered under the Gold operational campus update:
- Taking stock after the first four weeks of term, there was an update by each Dean on the level of face to face teaching students are receiving in each subject area. UEB was overall encouraged by the impressive range of teaching being provided, and how the extensive COVID-secure arrangements put in place to enable teaching have been working in practice. UEB is very grateful to staff across the University for their commitment and efforts in supporting our students in this way.
- Since the start of the pandemic UEB has been receiving periodic briefings from the University’s own COVID-19 experts. Today we heard from Professor Sir Stephen Holgate and Professor Lucy Yardley OBE, who both received honours in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours . These expert sessions have been very helpful in informing UEB as it considers its planning ahead, and providing insight into the behavioural aspects of our community’s response to the pandemic and the measures we have needed to introduce. Whilst the University and the city case levels remain encouragingly low compared with other regions, and our own Testing Programme remains a key part of our overall approach to minimising cases, trends locally are rising and there is no room for any complacency.
- The importance of ensuring staff are able to take regular breaks during the working day was raised, for general wellbeing and also to ensure outdoor time can be taken during the darker winter months, with exposure to sunlight now accepted as an important element of staying healthy during the pandemic. For many staff working primarily from home the working day can too often be a succession of chair-based and screen-based TEAMS meetings. Line managers are asked to consider carefully the scheduling of meetings to ensure adequate breaks can be taken.
- Finally, after considering a report on the current number of confirmed active COVID cases, UEB agreed that the University should remain at Tier 1 in terms of the Department for Education response levels.
The meeting then reverted to UEB status for the rest of today’s agenda, which included:
- A proposal for new pulse surveys of staff and students which will be used to measure progress against targets around student and staff safety and wellbeing, and student satisfaction, introduced as part of the University’s Bridging Strategy introduced in July. These surveys will be carried out in December and in April 2021.
- A report providing a high-level overview of this year’s National Student Survey (NSS) results and a summary of the actions being taken to address the student feedback received.
- A review of our recent applications for UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowships programme. There was agreement we need to do more to encourage a greater diversity of applications, encourage greater representation from Arts and Humanities, and support our own future leaders through greater exposure to our own bespoke leadership and management training opportunities.
- An assessment of the recent implementation of cyber-security warnings on externally-generated emails. There have been a few instances of internal emails generated by external servers carrying the warning messages, which will be addressed ahead. This forms just one element of our increasing need to remain extremely vigilant to sophisticated cyber-attacks.
- Finally, the regular review of the University’s Risk Register.