Author: Wendy Appleby, Vice-President (Operations)
The normal UEB blog correspondent was on a week’s annual leave so the pen was handed to the VP (Operations).
- UEB noted that a new Prime Minister was being installed in the role and was pleased to note that Rishi Sunak was a local from Southampton and the first Hindu to hold the role. Subsequent to UEB it was announced that the new Secretary of State for Education is Gillian Keegan MP. Incredibly this is the fifth Secretary of State this calendar year.
- UEB noted that a leak in a mains pipe on the east side of the Highfield campus has the potential to impact on heating and hot water in 11 buildings, however, mitigating action has been taken by Estates and Facilities. Repair is expected to take approximately four weeks.
- UEB noted that UCU members had voted in favour of industrial action and reiterated the importance of ensuring a world-class education for our students in planning the University’s response to the action.
- UEB discussed a project proposal to reduce curriculum complexity for postgraduate taught programmes. The complexities of doing such a project for postgraduate, as opposed to undergraduate, programmes were noted along with the fact that already a number of Schools were reviewing their postgraduate provision. UEB decided that the most appropriate approach to addressing postgraduate curriculum complexity at this stage would be to look at the questions and solutions as part of the planning round process.
- UEB received the Annual Assurance Review, which is a summary of assessment of compliance against a range of University activities and regulatory requirements, completed by Faculties and Professional Services. Where non-compliance was reported, mitigating action was identified. Overall, the picture had improved compared to last year and UEB endorsed the report, with some minor amendments, for onward consideration by the Audit Committee.
- UEB noted the University risk register and asked that the estates risks be reviewed in the light of the recent mains issue to ensure it is accurate.