Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director Engagement and Advancement
Meeting for the last time in 2020, UEB operating in Gold Command mode discussed a number of operational campus issues:
- Based on its assessment of the current University and local context, which has seen a very small number of active cases over the last week and with many students now returned home, and after discussions with local public health bodies, UEB confirmed that the University will remain at Tier 1 in terms of the Department for Education (DfE) response levels. These DfE tiers are separate from the regional tier levels currently in place in England.
- UEB considered a presentation on the lessons learned from the Active Campus project, as part of the process of formal project closure. There is quiet satisfaction, but no complacency, that thanks to hard work by colleagues right across the University, and strong engagement with our students, we were able to create an effective COVID-secure campus environment, provide a pragmatic balance of face-to-face and online teaching, and play a key community role in controlling COVID cases through our innovative saliva-testing programme. We could, of course, have done some things better, and the purpose of a lessons learned review is to capture those post-event findings so they are reflected in our future business continuity planning. A number of issues were captured under the headings of governance, stakeholder engagement, communication, and processes and operations.
- There was a discussion, prompted by the President of SUSU, around the financial impact of the pandemic on our students and the different approaches universities are taking to address this, recognising that each institution has a different context. We have invested considerably in the student experience this year, and we will continue actively to review the levels and mechanisms of support that we are providing for our students, including hardship support, with a key focus to ensure it is targeted and accessible to those most in need.
The meeting then reverted to normal UEB mode for the rest of the agenda:
- There was a comprehensive update on the issues and challenges the sector will face next year as it once again is required to address the long-term sustainability of the USS pension scheme. The need for reform is unavoidable, how best to achieve that will be the issue that Universities UK and universities’ Governing Councils will need to determine at national level, in discussion with USS scheme members. There was a recognition in today’s discussion there are a range of views on these issues, and perspectives may change at different career stages. UEB recognised it needed to better understand these perspectives, and to understand why a significant number of new starters choose not to take up the pension offer. It will be important to consult, and reflect all those views at national level.
- There was a discussion about the Annual Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report, which will be formally considered by our governing Council in January – with ED&I the subject of a special session at the Council’s annual awayday next month. Work in the first half of the year was focused on setting up a robust governance structure for ED&I with regular and consistent reporting of progress against the different equality charters and other key University-wide initiatives, such as tackling harassment. Work in the second half of the year has concentrated on development of a new five-year ED&I strategy that is ambitious and consciously goes beyond focusing on the work involved in progressing equality charters. This strategy was agreed at Council last month.
- UEB agreed there is a pressing need to identify and communicate clear, refreshed ED&I objectives, in line with our new ED&I strategy, which will be developed in early 2021. Early research is showing that the pressures on higher education arising from COVID-19 are anticipated to have a negative impact on progress against some of our gender and race equality initiatives. Notwithstanding those difficulties, the importance and urgency in improving our performance in ED&I is made starkly clear by reports such as UUK’s recent report “Tackling racial harassment in higher education.”
- There was a discussion about the Office for Students’ current consultation on its approach to regulating quality and standards in higher education. The consultation proposes a definition of the concept of quality in higher education that uses a predominantly metrics-based, outcomes-driven approach to define baseline requirements. This presents both risks and opportunities to us, and the sector. This will now be discussed further by our Academic Quality and Standards Committee.
- In other matters: UEB received a confidential update on admissions, in particular the January entry forecast and the 2021 admission cycle; UEB agreed to commission market research to determine if there is any demand for next year’s one-off January start for some PGT courses to be continued beyond 2021; UEB agreed that the “no detriment” commitment applied to student assessments during the early phases of the pandemic would not be automatically applied this year – we have learned a great deal since March and we have designed assessments and teaching with awareness of the continuing impact of the pandemic. Circumstances continue to be challenging for both students and staff and we will review the effectiveness of our assessment arrangements following the January assessment period.
- Finally, UEB approved the suggested University Closure dates for Christmas 2021 and Easter 2022, timed to maximise alignment with the Bank Holidays, and conducted its regular review of the University Risk Register.
The Vice-Chancellor closed the meeting by thanking members of UEB for their support and leadership during the year, and expressed his and UEB’s sincere thanks to Professor Phil Nelson, attending his last UEB meeting, and whose time holding the reins in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences has proved more eventful than originally envisaged. Professor Michael Butler takes up his role as the New Dean of FEPS on 1 January.