Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director Engagement and Advancement
As always, a range of issues were discussed at this week’s UEB, chaired by the Senior Vice-President (Academic) in the Vice-Chancellor’s absence on University business.
- UEB were pleased to note that Southampton has consolidated its place in the top 20 of UK universities, retaining 16th place for the second year in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023. This puts Southampton in second place in the south east region, with only the University of Oxford placed higher. UEB thanked everyone across the University involved in ensuring a continuing strong performance.
- In support of delivery of our new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategic plan, UEB noted that a new dedicated leadership role is being created – an Associate Vice-President, (EDI and Social Justice) – and internal expressions of interest in the role are now being encouraged. This new role will work directly with the University’s senior leadership, including the President and Vice-Chancellor, to develop individual and collective leadership of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, with a particular focus at the outset on race equality and issues of social justice and inclusion.
- UEB considered an update report on the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) global Student Mental Health Project, which recognises that university student mental health is widely acknowledged to be a significant and growing problem in countries around the world. The WUN working group is looking at ways to expand the data that informs the project, and we will look to see whether our own existing work in this area could be of support.
- UEB received its regular quarterly update on the status of our Strategic Major Projects portfolio. These are being aligned further with the strategic plans which will now underpin and enable delivery of our new University Strategy, and the portfolio “funnel” of current and emerging projects will be revised to ensure a coherent portfolio of change, recognising inter-dependencies and the capacity and appetite for simultaneous change. An expected increase in the number of projects and programmes as a result of the new Strategy and strategic plans means we are reviewing how the Change Portfolio Office operates, with three separate strands of project designation now under discussion: strategic major projects, strategic projects, and local projects. This should ensure the appropriate focus and resource is given to projects, based in particular on their transformational impact and risk.
- There were also updates on our estates projects, our IT strategic projects, and progress with our Sustainability strategic plan, further communication on all of which is planned over the coming weeks.
- Finally, UEB received a briefing on the latest developments with the USS pension scheme, including the funding position, implications for the 2023 valuation, and progress being made on three post-evaluation workstreams – the governance review of USS, lower cost pension saving options, and alternative scheme designs. There was also an update on the recent consultation on our own PASNAS pension scheme, the results of which are now being analysed before further discussions take place.
- The meeting ended with the regular review of the University Risk Register.