Authors: Wendy Appleby, Vice-President (Operations); Shaun Williams, Executive Director Engagement and Advancement
A double edition of the UEB Blog this week, covering the UEB meeting on Tuesday 19 July, which was held at St Mary’s Stadium following a tour and briefing ahead of three days of super-graduation events, and this week’s meeting on Tuesday 26 July.
- The Vice-Chancellor expressed his and UEB’s deepest thanks to everyone involved in last week’s Super-Graduation events at St Mary’s Stadium, recognising it had been a massive and ambitious event, with unprecedented logistical implications, involving many months of intensive planning, and with many staff and volunteers from across the University providing support on the day. More than 11,000 graduands and their families attended over the three days, with a largely very positive and celebratory atmosphere. Inevitably, given the huge numbers of attendees, some logistical changes had to be made to our previous, established approach, some of which led to disappointment amongst some attendees. Changes were immediately made to the format of following ceremonies, and there will of course be a full reflection on what worked well and what could be planned differently for future such events. UEB also thanked the organisers of a very successful Celebration Dinner for our honorary graduands and stakeholders, also held at the stadium, which also saw our inaugural Outstanding Alumni Awards, which will now become an annual event.
- At both UEB meetings there was a discussion about the transition to a new website structure on 11 July. This was a highly complex project to position 30,000 pages of content on a wider, more integrated architecture so that information links coherently across the triple helix of the University, and where possible was data driven to maintain accuracy. The transition was more complex than had been initially anticipated and led to a significant number of initial concerns being raised by colleagues in Faculties and Schools about the accuracy and completeness of information, and gaps in structures. After concerns were flagged last week, at this week’s UEB meeting there was a detailed briefing and discussion on the problems that have been identified, and how they are being prioritised and fixed. UEB noted that an update on SUSSED had been published earlier that morning acknowledging the go-live had not gone as smoothly as we had hoped, and a commitment that all the issues that have been flagged will be addressed. After considering a number of options, UEB agreed the transition work should continue as planned, with regular communication and updates through a new oversight board drawn from across the University, reporting to UEB.
- UEB last week received an analysis of the National Student Survey (NSS) results, noting the University’s strong performance with overall improvement in the results. It was of particular note that in all clustered areas and summary questions we are one of only three Russell Group universities above benchmark in all categories. There were some very strong results in some Faculties. However, other universities had also performed well which meant that Southampton’s overall position did not see an increase commensurate with our improved performance. The next steps are to provide Faculties with their reports and to drill down into thematic areas such as assessment.
- UEB also last week considered and agreed our Race Equality Charter submission, thanking the team that had compiled it for their excellent work in producing such a comprehensive document. The target award would be Bronze. UEB had a full discussion on the imperative to make progress on race equality, given the stark picture painted by the survey and data analysis which served to underline the fact that the University has a long way to go with respect to race equality. UEB members are committed to Southampton becoming an anti-racist university and recognise that stretching targets will be needed to achieve this.
- As part of the Cyber Project and associated work to strengthen institutional information governance, there was a discussion about university network usage by staff and students and the need for a new ‘Acceptable Use Policy’; UEB approved the HR Excellence in Research Award 10 Year Review report and action plan, which will shortly be published on our external website; and approved the wording of the Annual Assurance Statement, which will shortly be sent to Deans and Directors to provide assurance to the Vice-Chancellor and Audit Committee of compliance relating to key areas of risk across the University; and UEB were notified that the University’s Science and Engineering Day in 2023 would be held on Saturday 18 March. The success of tying the event to an Open Day was noted; this option would be explored again.
- Finally, there was the regular review of the University’s Risk Register.