Author: Philip Greenish, Chair of Council
Please note: information in this blog was accurate at the time of the meeting – 22 November 2023 – and may now have been superseded.
This was a particularly significant meeting of Council. We postponed our usual morning visit to a faculty/Students’ Union/professional services to give us time to review and agree the University’s ambitions for growth over the next decade, and we spent the morning doing exactly that.
The University Strategy was agreed in 2021 and is now being delivered through the excellent Strategic Plans. Similarly, we are making good progress on a number of core elements of our estates plan including the Northeast Quadrant, the configuration of the Sir James Matthews building to suit our needs, and the demolition of the Faraday Tower, to name a few. However, there has been some uncertainty around our planned student population growth in our UK campuses and on some of the key projects required to accommodate a larger number of students. In the summer, Council asked for work to be focused such that it could be presented in the round at this Council meeting.
In the first half of the morning, the Vice-Chancellor presented a detailed rationale for the number of students we should plan to educate in the UK and the consequences in terms of our size and shape. Council agreed both the logic of the plan and that we should aim for a student population of significantly above 30,000 on our UK campuses by 2033. In addition, we are planning for more than 5,000 students to be studying for Southampton degrees overseas by various modes. Staff numbers would also grow roughly in proportion. This growth is needed to strengthen our research power and to underpin our continued financial resilience. The aim is to increase the impact of the University on a local to global scale, securing our place in both the world top 100 universities and in the top group of universities in the UK league tables for the long term. We agreed that this ambition was realistic, but not without risks: some are known, other “unknown unknowns” can, of course, emerge at any time.
The second half of the morning was spent reviewing both the three-year estates capital programme and the 10-year rolling plan. Kieron Broadhead, Senior Executive Director, Students & Infrastructure (Deputy Vice-President (Operations)), outlined what we would need to do to accommodate a larger student body on campus and across the city. Kevin Argent, Executive Director of Estates and Facilities, presented proposals for all other aspects of estate development. After discussion, we agreed that these approaches were sound and that the plans would provide the teaching and learning facilities and accommodation for the target number of students. In the afternoon, we formally approved the creation of a 10-year rolling capital estates programme, including the next three-year interim capital programme.
We had a full agenda for our afternoon meeting. The Vice-Chancellor covered the latest UCU ballot and the implications for industrial action; actions taken as a result of the Middle East conflict; student numbers this academic year (which are lower than predicted for reasons we understand, but still largely in line with the original plan); the recent report on universities’ spin out activities, and the unwelcome news of a very low allocation to the University from the Research England Regional Impact Fund, purely due to our location in the Greater South East. He also offered congratulations to the Social Mobility/Widening Participation team for their Gold award in the UK Social Mobility Awards (for the second time). Ed Brooker then presented his regular SUSU report. Among a number of highlights, he reported the highest voting turnout ever in the SUSU autumn elections.
Council has a heavy burden of financial papers at this time of year. We approved the annual Financial Statements, which reported the University’s strong financial performance last year. We also approved the final budget for 2023/24 which, as anticipated, will be tighter than in recent years.
The Chair of the Audit Committee, Richard Gledhill then presented his annual report. The Audit Committee provides Council with the assurances we require across the full range of University business and oversees both internal and external audit. Their substantial work over the full year has given Council the assurance it needs to fulfil its legal responsibilities. We also received and approved the annual academic assurance report and the annual report on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).
Professor Andrew Atherton, Vice-President (International), reported on the process that is underway to establish a footprint in India, which Council approved. Progress is good, but commercial sensitivities do not allow me to report further at this stage. We also reviewed the International Strategic Plan.
Having considered the estates planning in the morning, we then reviewed the Strategic Outline Business Case for the Institute of Medical Innovation. We agreed that the Institute and the new accommodation it requires on the University Hospital Southampton site, but not in the hospital, is essential both to ensure the long-term viability of our medical research in space that is fit for purpose and to release space back to the hospital. The business case was approved.
Remaining agenda items included the approval of the annual PREVENT report and the name change of the Zepler Institute to its original name, the Optoelectronics Research Centre. We reviewed the Researcher Development Concordat and we considered progress against some University KPIs.
The evening before the meeting, we met over dinner and heard of the exciting work of the newly-established Sustainability and Resilience Institute, presented by Professor Simon Kemp and Dr Lindsay-Marie Armstrong.
This is an informal summary of the Council meeting; formal minutes will be published in due course.