Author: Philip Greenish, Chair of Council
Please note: information in this blog was accurate at the time of the meeting – 22 November 2022 – and may now have been superseded.
Council convened the afternoon before our formal meeting for a Board-to-Board meeting with University Hospital Southampton (UHS). In a particularly cold Senate chamber, both Boards were updated on joint working. We then discussed how our organisations are engaging in partnerships in the city and the region, and progress with Civic Partnership Agreements. At the dinner, our guest speaker, Dr Navina Evans, Chief Workforce Officer for NHS England, spoke to both Boards and then led a discussion on the recruitment, training and retention of all NHS staff, for which she has overarching responsibility. Her insights were particularly interesting and very helpful to both UHS and UoS Boards.
Our Council meeting on 22 November was hosted by the School of Ocean and Earth Science at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). Prior to the meeting, we were briefed on the work of the Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences by the Dean, Professor Tamar Pincus, and senior members of the Faculty’s Schools. In a very positive session, we covered the issues and challenges faced by each of the Schools in delivering the University Strategy and were impressed by the ambitions we saw. We then toured the school and visited parts of NOC – meeting Boaty McBoatface on our way round:
After the usual preliminaries, the Council meeting started with reports from the Vice-Chancellor who covered the latest changes in government and the implications of the Autumn Statement on research and innovation funding. This included the ‘Plan B’ should the UK not remain within Horizon Europe – we were reassured that the University is keeping very close to developments. We also discussed the likely impact of UCU industrial action and success with student recruitment this academic year (which is 1,100 higher than planned); early indicators for next year are similarly positive but we noted that this will need to be carefully managed to avoid over-recruitment. The VC reported that Civic Partnership agreements with all four local Councils (Southampton, Eastleigh, Winchester and Test Valley) should be signed by early next year. We noted the recent announcement of our position in the QS World sustainability league table – 88th in the world and 18th in the UK – and the award of Bronze in the Race Equality Charter.
Oliver Murray, President of the Students’ Union, introduced his report. Top of the list of issues discussed was the impact of inflation on the cost-of-living, but we covered a range of other matters of concern to students.
The Council agenda at this time of year always includes significant financial papers. The first was the Financial Statements for 2021/22 which we approved, noting that the University is in a secure financial position despite being in deficit last year due to the USS pension scheme. We expect the Statements to be published in December. We approved the budget for this financial year and the five-year financial return to OfS. In presenting the Audit Committee’s annual report, the new chair of the Committee, Richard Gledhill, provided Council with his early assessment of our audit processes and his reflection on our approach to risk. His view is that the capital programme is both our biggest risk and our biggest opportunity.
We then considered a set of reports on academic matters: the OfS Conditions for Registration, the OfS Regulatory Framework and the Annual Academic Assurance Report. Although these were for Council to note, OfS makes clear to us that this is a key Council responsibility, albeit that we depend on Senate to oversee the work. We also discussed and noted the recent report on the University’s economic impact, which is an extraordinary £4.14bn contribution to the UK economy each year.
Council has consistently reinforced the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and this is the time of year when we consider the annual report. We were joined by Camilla Gibson, Head of EDI. In a “deep dive” we reviewed how we are meeting our legal responsibilities, progress in delivering the strategic plan for EDI and priority areas of work for 2022/23. We agreed that we should retain the same four equality objectives as last year and that we would continue to actively support and advocate EDI across the University. We noted the progress in embedding good EDI practice across the University but recognised that there is still much to be done.
Meeting the obligations of the Researcher Development Concordat is crucial in improving research culture and researcher careers. We discussed the Concordat annual report and approved both the report and the action plans.
Finally, we offered our profound thanks to Sarah Pook, Executive Director of Finance and Planning, who leaves the University at the end of the year. Sarah has led the finance and planning function for eleven years and has served Council exceptionally well throughout this period.
Council now meets virtually between most of our in-person meetings with an agenda geared to reviewing significant areas of Council interest in depth. On 12 October, we met on Teams to review the monitoring of progress with the University Strategy, essentially, reviewing the University-level KPIs, and we reviewed in depth both the International Plan and the People Plan. There has been substantial progress in all these areas. We also approved a package of changes to the PASNAS pension scheme, following its last valuation and consultation with the unions, ahead of its submission to the Pensions Regulator.
Both Council meetings and associated events have been monitored by consultants from the Halpin Partnership who are providing an independent input to the Council effectiveness review. The outcome will be reported in due course.