The University today (25 May) published the report it commissioned in November 2017 from an independent, specialist Higher Education consultancy, Halpin Partnership.
The Halpin Review is a full review of the effectiveness of the University of Bath’s Council. The Halpin Partnership engaged many stakeholders in their review process; 1,392 students and staff completed their survey and people inside and outside the University community participated in interviews and discussion groups.
The governing body of the University, its Council, met yesterday (24 May) to discuss the Halpin Review and its recommendations in detail.
Chair of Council, Thomas Sheppard, said: “I’d like to thank all those who took the time to contribute their thoughts to the Halpin Partnership’s review process.
“Council welcomes the Halpin Review and we acted immediately to accept many of the primary recommendations. Implementing these recommendations will help achieve our ambition to place Bath at the forefront of governance practice in the sector.
“Some of the proposals need further, detailed consideration and, as recommended in the Review, we have now set up a Steering Group appointed by Council to be chaired by Ruth Foreman, Vice-Chair of Council. Council takes both the words in this report and the intent behind them very seriously and it will be making sure that care is taken to progress the recommendations effectively and without delay.
“The Review’s findings and recommendations are robust, and we welcome that. The reason we commissioned an independent review is to both help us learn from the past and challenge us to improve in the future.
“We are committed to ensuring our University is well led and well governed. We embrace the need to keep pace with best practice at a time where expectations on the sector are rapidly changing and we are ready to make the changes needed to our governance structures so we can continue to deliver excellent teaching to our students and world-leading research with our partners.
“Changes to governance do not happen overnight. However, we hope that today is an important next step in this process as we move forward as a community.”
Council acted immediately to agree many of the primary recommendations, including:
- Student and staff representation on Remuneration Committee
- Student representation on Nominations Committee
- Extending the Register of Interests for Council members to include former employment, as well as current employment
- Council to consider the diversity and skills of its membership
- Undertaking a review of Court, with Court representation, to seek ways and means of modernising engagement
Further decisions, and progress on implementing them, will be reported back to Council and communicated to our community.