Summary notes of the Executive Committee held on
16 July 2008
-
Director of Estates
The Vice-Chancellor reported that Mr Martyn Whalley, Deputy Director of Estates, would be appointed as Acting Director of Estates when Mr Patrick Finch left to take up his new appointment with the University of Bristol.
- Waterstones Bookshop
It was reported that Waterstones had been given notice to quit their accommodation on campus to make way for the Careers Office re-development. The contract for the supply of books to campus had been put out to tender and 6 responses had been received. Two of these had been deemed to provide a high quality provision. A procurement panel comprising Ms Diane Aderyn, Professor Ian Jamieson, Ms Jo Andrews, Mr H Nicholson and Mr G Rae had completed the evaluation process which identified Blackwell as the best bid. A meeting was being held later in the day with Blackwell to finalise the details of the provision but the key elements would include:
a) a temporary bookstall on campus for the first 7 weeks of Semester 1 (3West2.8(a)) and the first 5 weeks of Semester 2 (venue to be confirmed)
b) an online book service with discounts and a delivery service
c) a second hand book buy-back scheme
Blackwell already supplied books to 25 universities using a similar model. In discussion, it was noted that the comparative cost with other online providers such as Amazon would impact on the uptake of the new Blackwell service. The new service will provide all staff and students with online access to over three million titles compared to the thousands it is possible to stock in a traditional campus bookshop.
- Corporate Sustainability Steering Group
The Vice-Chancellor reported that she had established a Steering Group to identify opportunities to improve institutional efficiency and effectiveness. The membership of the steering group comprises:
Professor Glynis Breakwell, Chair
Professor Kevin Edge, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (designate)
Professor Ian Jamieson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning & Teaching)
Professor Gary Hawley, Dean of Engineering and Design
Professor David Bird, Head of Physics
Ms Diane Aderyn, Director of Finance
Mr Ian Cheetham, Director of Human Resources
Ms Alison Price, Academic Registrar
Dr Nicky Kemp, Director of Policy and Planning
The Steering Group would be working to a December 2008 timescale and all departments were invited to submit their views for consideration in the review.
- Professional Service Reports
Internal Audit
Mr Mark Ricketts, the Internal Auditor, outlined the objectives of Internal Audit:
a) to identify significant risk areas in the University
b) to promote the achievement of value for money in the University’s activities
c) to ensure that adequate controls and systems are in place to minimise risks and safeguard assets
d) to ensure compliance with University policies, and
e) to provide advice to management when requested in areas of risk management, control and governance.
He also explained the relationship between Internal Audit and the University’s Audit Committee, highlighting its role in governance and accountability matters. He highlighted that the team’s agenda was largely influenced by the University’s Risk Register but stressed that it was independent, not a part of the Finance Department as some people assumed. The Internal Audit service fell within the remit of HEFCE’s Assurance Review process and the internal audit arrangements had been given the highest rating.
The Vice-Chancellor felt that the service was streamlined and responsive. It also represented good value for money as it had a high output for the resources available. She thanked Mr Ricketts and his team for their excellent performance on behalf of the University. The Director of BUCS commended the team on their willingness to acquire new skills in order to undertake an audit more effectively. Mr Ricketts reported that the relationship between management and internal audit worked very well at the University.
Sports Development
Mr Roddy reported that he had found the process of producing the professional services report very useful. It had highlighted how the University had supported the development of Sport in recent years and he thanked members of the Executive Committee for this collegiate support. Sport at the University of Bath is still a benchmark for other institutions and the attempts of other institutions to poach staff from Bath provided clear evidence of the national esteem and regard for the professional team running the operation. The NSS highlights the value of Sport and, academically, it ranks in the top two nationally. Mr Roddy highlighted the growth in academic sport at the University since he arrived and thanked the School for Health, Division for Lifelong Learning and Department of Education for their support.
In terms of community outreach, the Sports Training Village received over 58,000 visits from members of the local community in the last 6 months. However, with high demand came maintenance issues and Mr Roddy thanked the Director of Estates for the co-operation of his team in helping to keep the physical infrastructure in good condition.
Mr Roddy acknowledged that there were challenges facing Sports Development including the impact of pay modernisation on the salary bill and the impact of the credit crunch on membership subscriptions.
It was noted that Sports Development had a positive impact on student recruitment, widening participation and community relations. Professor Judge highlighted the value of the Olympic Day fun run.
Mr Roddy flagged the extensive links that Sports Development had built with local schools and colleges in order to produce a pipeline of performance athletes.
Professor Wood asked how the STV fitted into the local healthy living agenda. Mr Roddy explained that the physical activity agenda was problematic as the Government’s agenda was ambiguous around the sport/physical activity boundaries. However, he conceded that the STV could try to lock itself more firmly into this agenda.
- Dignity and Respect for Students and Staff of the University of Bath: Policy and Procedures for dealing with Complaints
The Director of Human Resources explained that there had been a lot of recent changes to legislation. As a result, it had been necessary to make a number of amendments to the existing Dignity and Respect policy in order to remain compliant. One minor change responded to new gender discrimination legislation but the more significant changes were to reflect the duty on employers to take reasonably practicable steps to prevent repeated harassment of an employee by third parties. Following discussions at the Equality and Diversity Committee, three additional paragraphs had been added to the existing policy to respond to this legislation – paragraphs 4.3, 5.1.2 and 6.1.4.
In discussion, it was clarified that parents would count as third parties in the context of the revised policy. The Dean of Science highlighted the need to ensure that managers understood that they now had a new responsibility under the amended policy. Professor Jamieson suggested that one approach might be to develop a “management handbook”.
-
Risk Management Report
The Director of Policy and Planning presented a report on risk management that focussed on two risk elements of the Risk Register:
a) Failure to deal with poor performance
b) Weakness of the central research support infrastructure
The risks associated with failure to manage poor performance had been mitigated by the introduction of three related HR policies, approved by Council on 3 July 2008. These policies included the Disciplinary Policy, Capability Policy and Sickness Absence Policy. The weakness of the central research support infrastructure had been mitigated by the creation of the new Research Development and Support Office and the appointment of a new Director.
The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) highlighted that the University’s managers would not be aware of the new performance management policies unless they had attended Council.
-
Quarterly Report from Research and Innovation Services
The Director of RIS reported that the targets his department had been working towards were determined by the agreed outputs associated with various funding streams. The key achievements of RIS included:
a) the delivery of the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment – I-SEE – as a pilot methodology for other research clusters;
b)
ten facilitated/assisted research projects;
c)
a portfolio of 18 KTPs (towards a target envelope of 20), Bath is recognised as a flagship KTP hub;
d)
97 consultancy enquiries (with £800k towards a 2-year target of achieving £1m per annum);
e)
1 spin out company coming to fruition;
f)
IP exploitation supported.
Dr Cross highlighted that this activity provided a strong platform for the launch of Bath Ventures and the Research Support and Development Office. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor reported that he had attended a recent networking event at the Holburne Museum and was very impressed by the level of support for the University from a diverse range of local businesses, including some very senior professionals. He noted that it was a great credit to RIS that they had built up such a network of local contacts. The Vice-Chancellor suggested that the next step should be to develop a local equivalent of the Cambridge Enterprise Network. Dr Cross confirmed that this was one of the goals of Bath Ventures. The Director of Sports Development noted that it was very difficult to access RDA funding for sport and reported that colleagues in the East Midlands and Yorkshire had fared much better. Dr Cross agreed that a ‘technologies for healthy living’ theme might be one route to unlocking regional funding. The Vice-Chancellor noted that the SWRDA had identified ‘Bristol and the West of England’ as a priority area, which included Bath, but Bath would have to be aggressive to capture any funding.
-
The following items were noted without comment:
Notes of the University Recruitment and Admissions Committee: 6 March 2008
Notes of the School for Health Executive: 6 May 2008
Notes of the Faculty of Science Executive: 8 April 2008 and 8 May 2008
Notes of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Heads of Department Committee: 9 June 2008
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