Summary notes of the Executive Committee held on
29 October 2008
- Update to the University's Maternity Policy
The Deputy Director of Human Resources summarised a number of updates following on from recent changes in employment law. Paid maternity leave had been extended from 26 to 39 weeks by adding an additional 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay to the existing 18 weeks of SMC and 8 weeks of full pay. 'Keep in Touch' days had been introduced to enable staff to undertake work or attend training during maternity leave. The update had also provided an opportunity to make clearer the arrangements for applying to vary working hours on return from maternity leave.
- Revision of the Appraisal Scheme to Staff Development and Performance Review
The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) presented a Staff Development and Review scheme for non-academic staff designed to replace the current Career Development and Appraisal scheme. The new scheme was intended to simplify the appraisal process, with a review of three main elements: a review of achievements against the previous year's objectives; setting objectives for the coming year, in the context of departmental needs and strategy; and discussion of broader career aims.
- Timetable Review Group: Recommendations
The Dean of the Faculty of Science outlined the conclusions and recommendations of the Review Group.
A Timetable Policy should be adopted with the following main provisions:
a) Requests to make changes to the provisional timetable would be accepted only if there is no consequent adverse impact on the timetable as a whole.
b) Requests to make changes to the final timetable, once issued, would not be accommodated.
c) There should be a stricter view of the circumstances in which academic staff can say they are unavailable for teaching. Requests of this kind from staff with parental/carer responsibilities should be dealt with under the University's Parents and Carers Flexible Working Policy.
d) HoDs should be responsible for managing the Timetable Policy in their departments, and submission of information required for compilation of the timetable.
Timetabling of unit options should be simplified by asking Departments/Schools to review their programmes of study, in order to identify blocks of units that could be timetabled against each other.
Regulation of unit choice should be improved, such that unit enrolments were accurate as of the first day of the semester. Changes requested after the selection of units in April of each academic year would not therefore be guaranteed.
In order that students can make more informed unit choices, Departments/Schools should put unit descriptions on Moodle or the intranet. This should help reduce the numbers of students sampling units during the Add/Drop period.
Departments/Schools with block taught programmes, especially PGT programmes, should be asked to collaborate on identify common teaching space, for which they could be given priority when needed and then made available as GTA space at other times.
Informal use of departmental rooms eased pressure and should be allowed to continue, though with a central register of such rooms.
Planning of new GTA space should continue to be based on evolving patterns of demand, in terms of size and type of space required.
- Professional Service Reports
Development and Alumni Relations
The Director of Development and Alumni Relations said that although much of the work of his department was intended to generate returns over the medium- to long-term, particularly alumni relations and legacies, 2007/08 had seen significant increases in funds raised or pledged. All targets had been exceeded except that for the Annual Fund. An increase in staffing, partly funded by the UUK/DIUS three-year matched funding scheme (providing around £125K a year), had enabled growth of activities.
Objectives for 2008/09 included increasing the level of philanthropic income (excluding matched funding) and increasing the Annual Fund. Targets had been set before the economic downturn, however, and it was anticipated that fund-raising would now become much more difficult.
Benchmarking against similar HEIs was undertaken using data from the Ross Group Survey.
Accommodation and Hospitality Services
The Head of Accommodation and Hospitality Services highlighted key achievements of 2007/08: phases 2 and 3 of refurbishment of Westwood and Eastwood had been completed on time and to budget; Woodland Court had been completed almost on time and to budget; utility use in Accommodation had been reduced by 10 percent by promotion of the Energy Challenge initiative; branding and customer feedback mechanisms for Hospitality Services had been improved; and the department restructured to ensure provision of support in key functional areas
- University Risk Register
The Committee received a report on actions taken to address the following risks:
FI2 (Failure to Diversify Income Streams): Development fund-raising activities had been boosted significantly by using the UUK/DIUS matched funding scheme to appoint new staff and proposals had been put forward for the development of income-generating CPD activity.
FI3 (Inadequate Financial Strategy and Management): Introduction of Agresso would generate improved and more regular financial management reporting at both departmental and corporate levels; and the establishment of the Corporate Sustainability Steering Group provided a sharp focus on measures needed to ensure the future financial sustainability of the University.
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