Enrolment Update

As Welcome Week comes to an end and the new term starts in earnest, it’s a good time to update on numbers. Most students have enrolled but there is still time for the outstanding acceptances to translate into new starters. Currently we are forecasting that numbers at the end of October will be about 2% above target. As we stand currently, full-time UG enrolments are slightly below target (but with international numbers stronger than HEU numbers, reflecting the underlying demographics).

At PGT level, enrolments to date are slightly ahead of target and again the strong performance comes on the international side. PGR numbers currently look a little disappointing although the greater flexibility around registration deadlines means that we are less certain about the final outturn. Overall, there is quite a bit of variability in numbers relative to target across disciplines as you might imagine.

National Policy

You’ve possibly already picked up on the story that Government is unlikely to pursue the Augar recommendations for a reduction in fees to £7.5k which is encouraging, but the intention to invest further in FE remains and the Labour Party commitment to the ending of tuition fees suggest that protecting the status quo may be difficult. And the narrative around poor value for money continues to be popular in policy circles. The recent Guidance Letter from the Secretary of State to OfS suggests that value for money must be given “the highest priority”, it talks about a “value for money strategy” and encourages OfS to “exercise your powers boldly”. The letter also encourages OfS to consider a provider level TEF in 2020 and publish subject level TEF in 2021. There is also a strong emphasis on “innovative and flexible provision”. There is particular reference to part-time study, accelerated degrees and a review of regulatory and funding requirements to incentivise such provision.

If you’re interested, the full letter is available at https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/1a105d7c-e6ef-4e3d-ab23-bd3e93e01257/letter-from-the-education-secretary-sept19.pdf

Compliance Issues

With the start of the new academic year, there is quite a lot that is happening in relation to compliance. You will all be aware of the last minute need for changes around attendance monitoring – reflecting some of the changing expectations from the border authorities. But there are other areas of activity where it might be helpful to remind colleagues about the significance of a number of policy requirements/frameworks.

The most obvious of these are financial regulations – and these are being reviewed, so changes may be announced during the coming year. In addition it’s probably worth reminding colleagues about policies around conflicts of interest (on the HR pages), around CMA and around GDPR. And the other one that is worth highlighting is probably the Anti-Bribery Act, details of which were announced last year via Insite and this includes information about the available training (see https://warwick.ac.uk/insite/news/intnews2/antibriberytraining/ ). Could you remind your colleagues about this and encouraging those who might find themselves in potentially difficult situations, to undertake the training (it took me about 20 minutes and it is helpful).

The other issue that you might want to think about in relation to the Anti Bribery Act is ensuring that there is an awareness of the need to declare gifts via a gift register. This could be as simple as just requiring an email notification, so it doesn’t need to be complex or bureaucratic – it’s just about ensuring that there is a record of any gifts that have been received by individuals in the department.

Resources for HoDs

Following feedback from the annual HoDs induction programme, we have created a single access point for resources that are likely to be relevant to your role as HoD. I hope this might make it a bit easier to find some of the information you will need from the University’s web pages. The link is:

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/od/leadership/hods_res

And if you have any suggestions for additions/changes, do please let us know.

New School in the Faculty of Arts

The new School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures is now up and running and Paul Rowlett is in post as Change Lead (Interim HoD). We are advertising externally for a new HoD to take over in the new year. The new School’s web page with details of the current range of activity is available here.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/scapvc/

Academic Processes – Progress Update

In the last “Update”, I explained where we were with respect to a range of academic process changes. Amendments to regulations for study leave will go to Senate shortly and associated policies will be subject to consultation with UCU and reviewed by Academic Staff Committee at the end of October. I will also share a draft with yourselves. Senate will also look at some changes to regulation in relation to probation for R&T staff. These are essentially about simplification but they also formally align the probation requirements with the promotions framework for movement from FA7 to FA8 for R&T staff. There will be further detail in an associated policy and one of the key issues that will need to be clarified relates to transition between the two systems for staff currently on probation. A key message will be that these changes will not alter the performance standards required to pass probation – they will simply provide greater clarity about exactly what is required.