Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director Engagement and Advancement
- UEB thanked all those involved in making last week’s Winter Graduations a success for our students. The feedback has been very positive, and the use of the Guildhall venue and the nearby Sir James Matthews building underlined the benefits of our increased city centre presence, together with Highfield campus activity. This has proved a useful precursor to next summer’s graduations which will also take place in the Guildhall, as well as in Winchester Cathedral.
- UEB noted the announcement on Monday by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) of a further three-month extension to the support provided to UK Horizon Europe applicants, amidst continuing uncertainty and wrangling about the UK’s access to EU programmes. This will ensure that eligible, successful UK applicants will continue to be guaranteed funding, supporting them to continue their important work in research and innovation. UEB also noted there could be future opportunities from last week’s Government launch of the UK International Science Partnerships Fund in Japan.
- UEB heard there had been a very positive response by our staff to our announcement last week of enhancements to the University’s Level 1-6 and Level 7 pay scales, delivering a permanent pay rise for all employees who are paid using these scales, from 1 January 2023. These changes are outside of the national pay negotiations, and therefore in our gift to make independently.
- Separately, UEB heard that at national level discussions are still continuing between the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA) and national trade unions (including UCU, UNISON and Unite) about bringing forward the 2023-24 New JNCHES pay round, with the aim of facilitating an early settlement to the pay round and the on-going action. At this stage, further industrial action in the New Year cannot be ruled out.
- As we prepare to move into the second year of delivering the University Strategy, the Vice-Chancellor announced a number of changes to the portfolio responsibilities of Vice-Presidents, to ensure an equitable allocation of responsibilities for delivering the University Strategy and individual Strategic Plans. A full list of leadership responsibilities will be published in January, and will include Professor Jane Falkingham, joint Vice-President International & Engagement, assuming responsibility for the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and Civic strategic plans; Professor Andrew Atherton, joint Vice-President International & Engagement, assuming responsibility for the International strategic plan; the Vice-Chancellor assuming the role of UEB Champion for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and Professor Phil Wright, Senior Vice-President (Academic) assuming the role of UEB Champion for Sustainability.
- There was an important discussion of a detailed paper prepared by our Estates & Facilities team around our resilience in respect of potential disruption to our gas and electrical supply. A Utility Resilience and Continuity Group has been formed made up of stakeholders from Professional Services and Faculty Operations, and has been assessing on a building-by-building basis the impact of pre-planned or un-planned power outages, and the impact it would have in particular on research activities. We have also been in close contact with our energy suppliers. The risk of power outage is considered to be low, however we are drawing up responses to various scenarios and “play-books” for individual buildings. Power outages have of course formed part of our long-standing business continuity planning, and faculties, schools and departments should have this captured in their individual Business Impact Assessments. Building power resilience into our new buildings will also be a consideration as we embark on our programme of estates refurbishment and replacement.
- There was an update on compliance with our mandatory cyber training – although there has been improvement since UEB last discussed this, compliance levels with the two core online modules is still far from satisfactory and a concerted drive to improve this will be needed in the New Year. Cyber attacks are increasing in both volume and sophistication, and universities are seen as tempting targets.
- UEB noted that we have announced this week that we are looking internally for a Director for a new Sustainability and Resilience University Strategic Interdisciplinary Institute, that will address complex challenges associated with sustainable development and address these through innovative solutions.
- UEB noted the announcement this week that Professor James Knowles, currently senior Vice-Principal for Education at Royal Holloway, has been appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of Solent University, and will start in the role in April. The Vice-Chancellor has already extended his congratulations and we look forward to working with him.
- After the regular review of the University Risk Register, the Vice-Chancellor ended the last UEB meeting of 2022 by expressing his and UEB’s huge thanks and appreciation to Sarah Pook, our Executive Director Finance, Planning & Analytics, attending her last ever UEB meeting before joining Winchester University in January. She will be greatly missed.
The next scheduled UEB meeting is on Tuesday 3 January 2023.