Author: Philip Greenish, Chair of Council
Please note: information in this blog was accurate at the time of the meeting – 22 September 2021 – and may now have been superseded.
Council met on 22 September for our first in-person meeting since March 2020. Before the meeting we visited the Winchester School of Art (WSA), meeting staff, touring the site and being briefed on plans for the future of the School. In discussion, we recognised the importance of the work in hand to ensure that we are able to compete with the best art schools in the country, but that investment will be needed. It was a very useful session and underlined the importance of Council re-establishing our routine of visits to faculties each time we meet. The previous evening, we hosted the Leader of Winchester City Council and its Chief Executive and heard from them of their plans for the development of the city and the importance of WSA to it.
At the start of our meeting, we welcomed three of our four new members of Council (Professor m.c. schraefel, a new Senate appointee, was unavoidably absent). Baroness Sandy Verma and Mr Akshay Thakur joined Council on 1 August as Lay members and Dr Krish Vithana has joined as a Senate appointee.
This meeting had an unusually light agenda which gave us the welcome opportunity to spend more time on some important issues. In my introductory remarks, I reminded Council quite how important this academic year will be. We will agree a new University Strategy at our November meeting and expect to make some crucially important investment decisions during the year. We will be building on a sound base exemplified by successive rises in our league table positions, but we will be facing many challenges which have the potential to blow us off course.
The Vice-Chancellor then presented his report which included: the outcome of clearing and latest estimates of undergraduate and postgraduate recruitment (which is positive in every respect); our aspirations for in-person teaching alongside the scenarios we must plan for should the COVID-19 situation worsen; recent rises in our position in league tables; changes in Government announced last week; and the government spending review and expectations for the post-18 funding review. Finally, he reported on recent and anticipated changes in the senior management team. Ben Dolbear, President of SUSU, then highlighted key issues in his excellent written report. This included his assessment of students’ top priorities and concerns, which are: in-person teaching, safety (including sexual conduct), academic integrity and accommodation. He reported that 550 students still had no confirmed accommodation, but Council was assured that this will reduce to zero by the time all students have arrived.
In parallel with the strategy development, work has progressed during the summer to develop a long-term projection of the University’s future size and shape. We were briefed on, and discussed at length, the report, raising a number of issues for the executive to take into consideration. It remains work in progress so there is no outcome to report. We then considered the development of key performance indicators which will be approved alongside the University strategy.
Kieron Broadhead, Executive Director of Student Experience and Campus Life attended Council for an item on the University’s approach to the prevention and response to student cases of sexual harassment and misconduct. His report outlined the expectations placed on providers by the Office for Students, our approach to managing cases, improvements made in our approach in recent years as well as future plans. Council emphasised the importance it attributes to this issue which is crucial for the wellbeing of our students. We expect to review it in detail on a regular basis.
A number of sub-committees now report to Council and we received short reports from their chairs. Although we delegate to sub committees, some items are required to come to the full Council. One of these is the University’s Treasury Management Strategy which we approved. Changes to the strategy mainly reflect the sums of money we hold which will be invested on our infrastructure in future years. We confirmed that these are consistent with the University Sustainability Strategy. We received reports on the current developments on pensions and we received an update from the Estates and Infrastructure Committee on project timelines.