Author: Professor Deborah Gill, Vice-President Education & Student Experience
- The Vice-Chancellor reported that the University has been allocated an additional 17 medical student places in the latest expansion of Medical School numbers. These additional student places will be used to increase the number of students from widening participation backgrounds on our Medicine programmes and to expand the number of places on our high demand, graduate entry, four-year Medicine programme.
- UEB also heard that Kieron Broadhead and Andrew Atherton travelled to India immediately after Easter to meet with the Indian University Grants Commission as an important step in plans for India.
- The Vice-Chancellor reported that the pay negotiations for 24/25 have now commenced between UCEA and the Trade Unions, with a meeting immediately prior to Easter. Further meetings will take place throughout April.
- UEB discussed whether we should move to auto-registration for voting of our students as part of enrolment and re-enrolment. We do not currently auto-register our students, but make it as easy as possible for them to register alongside the enrolment process. Auto-enrolment would require some intensive work on data sharing agreements with the local Councils and having an updated Fair Processing Notice in place by 1 August 2024. There is a mixed picture across the sector in terms of using auto-enrolment and there appears to be little impact on voting behaviour. Colleagues will investigate further the feasibility of introducing auto-enrolment for this year and UEB committed to looking at this as a longer-term plan if this is not feasible. The SUSU President noted that SUSU will have an active campaign ahead of the general election to encourage students to take part in democracy, and UEB members commended and strongly supported this.
- UEB received an update on our residences development programme that aims to increase the quantity and improve the quality of our student residential accommodation to meet the University’s size and shape aspirations. Detailed assessment of the options available for delivery of new rooms and the improvement in condition of existing stock, including improvement in carbon performance, have been carried out. UEB will continue to examine the options to find the best approach to timely and cost effective development of our residences that uses our available capital wisely.
- Finally, there was the regular review of the University Risk Register, which had seen no changes since its last review.