Provost's Update No. 3 (March 2017)

National Student Survey

As of last week the national average response rate for NSS (all start dates) was 53.3%. The average for all week 5 starters (like Warwick) was 49.5% and the University is not far behind with 43.3%. We are expected to meet the 50% publication threshold and will probably do so by the end of term. We are behind our response rate from previous years with considerable variability across departments. The position with our competitor institutions, is mixed, some are ahead of their position in previous years – others are ahead.

Budget Steering Group Meeting - Q2 Figures

Budget Steering Group met last week to review the Q2 financial position. The forecast surplus has been revised slightly upwards to just over £26m, although this does include the release of the safety factor of around £5m. Fee income is expected to be around £6m over budget but costs are also being forecast at £3m over budget and research income is forecast to be £6m below budget. The view from finance is that there may be some conservatism in the forecasting of costs and that the projected surplus may increase in the second half of the year.

Capital Projects

There are a number of major capital projects in progress as well as plans for a significant update to the University’s campus masterplan. Updates on the current projects include:

· The design competition for the new Humanities building, which will re-unite all Arts Faculty departments under one roof, has been won by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. The current financial plan assumes that construction activity will start at the end of 2018 at an estimated cost of around £50m. Work on the Humanities Building will overlap with work on the Arts Centre and so there will be some disruption to manage.

· The Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building (Gibbet Hill Phase 1) is now in the design phase. Estates are continuing to support the School of Engineering following the IET(Institute of Engineering & Technology) report that indicated the failings in the current facilities.

· Mathematical Sciences – the principal Contractor (Morgan Sindall) has been approved and commencement on site was in February 2017.

· Work on the Sports Hub is expected to start in April.

· Arts Centre 2020 – the project is a complex one and is still in the design phase as the project team address issues associated with completing the work while still allowing the Arts centre to operate. Plans are well advanced for the construction of temporary theatre facilities to operate for a significant period of time while the refurbishment takes place.

Warwick in California

We recently hosted a visit to Warwick from our partners, UDF, and representatives of the local community in Placer and Folsom counties. This was a great opportunity to showcase the work we do here and highlight some of the development opportunities in California. The delegation were able to meet a range of staff and students and were hugely enthused by their visit. This was also an opportunity to make progress on the operational side of the project, particularly so as we move towards appointment of the Trustees of Warwick in California and finalise the paperwork for regulatory approval.

Three research collaboration visits are imminent involving colleagues from WBS (healthcare improvement), WMG (Cybersecurity) and CEDAR. Future visits are expected to involved colleagues from Global History and the Centre for Fusion Space and Astrophysics.

Higher Education and Research Bill

The House of Lords continues to propose amendments to the Higher Education Research Bill. These include an amendment that proposes breaking the link between TEF and fees, an amendment that has been described as a “demolition job” on the current TEF model and an amendment that requires a more robust process of checks and balances in relation to the entry of new providers. The vote on Amendment 150 on preventing international students from being counted as long-term migrants was a notable government defeat.

Teaching Excellence Framework

The Government has said that it is listening to concerns expressed by the sector and has indicated that it intends delay implementation of a subject-level TEF to allow longer for piloting. There are also indications that there may be a willingness to make much greater use of absolute performance scores in TEF assessments rather than just scores relative to a benchmark.

Accelerated degrees

The government has announced that HE Providers will be allowed to offer intensive 2 year degrees with teaching taking place throughout the full year (holidays then being significantly shorter) and students being charged the same total tuition fee but incurring lower living costs

Adam Waddingham : 14 Mar 2017 17:08 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Provost's Update No. 2 (January 2017)

Recruitment and Admissions

Now that the UCAS 15^th Jan deadline has passed we have some preliminary figures which may be of interest. There will be further detail to follow. The UoW position on applications at 19 Jan (assuming all 15 Jan applications have now come through from UCAS) is as follows:

• Home 24778 (+4%)
• Overseas 8327 (+2%)
• Total 33111 (+2%)

This is encouraging given that early reports from UCAS suggest that the sector as a whole has experienced a reduction in applications which has been reported to be 5% for home students and over 7% for EU students. Our figures suggest that applications from EU students to Warwick are down by about 1%. Final figures will be confirmed in a few weeks.

The sector decline is consistent with the acknowledged demographic issue (identified by Census data) that means there are fewer 16-18 year olds in the U.K. than in previous years. This demographic downturn will remain a challenge for recruitment until the situation starts to improve in 2020, although it is expected to be closer 2025 before the population of 16-18 year olds returns to the level of recent years.

PGT applications look strong – 10% ahead of last year for home students and 19% ahead of last year for overseas studentss.

Accommodation developments

Both University Estates Committee and FGPC have been looking at our accommodation strategy. For the September 2017 intake we will have around 1000 additional bed spaces (on and off campus). Looking ahead we are planning to have approximately 1000 new rooms available for students. The first phase would comprise of c.400 rooms at Cryfield (target date Dec 2018), with the second phase for 500+ rooms planned for either Westwood or Sherbourne. The final decision on the location of Phase 2 will be made following more detailed master planning.

Higher Education and Research Bill

The Higher Education and Research Bill continues to make its way through the Lords. There has been considerable opposition and robust challenge to the Bill. A key element of the challenge has been around institutional autonomy and academic freedom. Government currently refuses to consider any of the opposition amendments, although it’s being suggested that some compromise amendments will emerge at the report stage.

The other related development is the announcement that the Home Office will start a consultation early in the year in relation to their intentions to exercise tighter controls on international student numbers. It’s still unclear as to whether this will involve tougher compliance requirements, and how these will be linked to judgement of university ‘quality’.

Review of governing instruments

You may recall that in November 2016 the Council had approved the establishment of a sub-group to undertake the review of the governing instruments of the University. This work is progressing and consultations are currently taking place with the campus Trade Unions. A significant component of this work focuses on Statute 24 which outlines the principle of academic freedom and details a number of employment policies specifically - redundancy, grievance, disciplinary and dismissal on medical grounds. The University is committed to retaining the protections in Statutes relating to academic freedom, but we are looking at re-working the provisions relating to employment policies, which would then allow us to create a single policy framework which applies to all staff (as opposed to the current situation where there are different policies for different staff groups). All proposed changes will come forward for further consultation with Senate, the campus Trades Unions and relevant committees, with the ambition of producing proposals for Council in May 2017.

Warwick in California

The Warwick in California project continues to progress. During a workshop on 11 January 2017, members of the Senate explored the proposed governance arrangements and discussed the relationship between UoW and UWiC. Discussion took place around the topics of Board and standing committee composition, academic standards and quality and ways in which engagement between the two institutions could create and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship.

In light of graduate school building timelines, the California Joint Project Board agreed that utilisation of the building should be phased. The refurbished graduate school building should be ready for UWiC occupancy by Autumn 2018, at which point the graduate school will provide a California base for research activities alongside a full programme of education and community activities. However, it was agreed that delivery of the initial two degrees should start in Autumn 2019 because of the risks associated with starting a recruitment process while our premises are being refurbished.

The submission for regulatory approval in California should be made shortly; funding requirements (to be provided via our partners) have been approved by Council and an experienced US higher education fundraiser has been appointed by our partners to lead the major fundraising campaign to finance the long-term project objectives. Senior representatives from UDF are expected to visit campus at the end of February.

TEF

The University’s TEF submission has been completed. Results are due in May. We’re aware that Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Open University have declined to participate in the TEF. Several other Scottish Universities have confirmed their participation. HEFCE is reporting 299 submissions to TEF of which 134 are higher education providers.

Meanwhile, its interesting to note that, during the debate on the Higher Education Bill, there was explicit acknowledgement of the limitations of NSS in relation to TEF including the statement that “NSS scores can be inversely correlated with stretch and rigour”. It was also observed that TEF outcomes should be driven as much by provider submissions as by metrics.

Warwick in London

You may already be aware from insite, but the Warwick in London team will be running a series of town hall meetings and drop-in Q&A sessions for staff throughout the Spring Term. They will also be visiting Faculties directly to discuss options for departments to get involved with WiL whether through contributions to the various summer school events, outreach activity, or contributing to a range of planned short courses and workshops.

We are establishing an informal “London Steering Group” to try to ensure that our various activities in London – WBS (The Shard), Alan Turing Institute and WiL are co-ordinated and consistent to help strengthen the overall London presence that Warwick is developing.

Best wishes,

Adam Waddingham : 06 Feb 2017 10:29 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Provost's Update No. 1 (November 2016)

TEF

The University has committed to submit to TEF2 and the written submission is currently under development. There has been significant opposition from the Student Union and an extraordinary meeting of Senate to discuss the issue was held on 9^th November. The possibility that engagement with TEF will be linked to the right to sponsor international students has created a compelling case for participation, notwithstanding the concerns about the efficacy of the current process. The Russell Group has convened a working group on TEF as the request of government and it is hope that this will provide a mechanism to shape the future development and operation of the framework.

Higher Education and Research Bill

The bill continues its progress through Parliament and there have been a number of recent Government amendments tabled which address some of the criticism from the sector. These include:

1. There will be representation on the OfS board for someone who has experience of representing the interests of students

2. Including a clause to give the OfS a new duty to monitor the financial sustainability of the sector.

3. Restrictions on Governments ability to influence the provision of a particular course of study (mitigating some of the concerns around academic freedom).

4. The requirement for all registered providers to publish student protection plans and bring them to students' attention.

5. The addition of postgraduate training to UKRI’s functions

Stern Review

There has already been extensive discussion around Stern – most notably at the last HoDs Forum – so just a reminder here. HEFCE are taking the view that the principles of the Stern Review should be regarded as accepted in full, although there will be some bargaining around aspects of the detail. Areas in which we have a high degree of certainty include:

• The census date will be November 2020 with results announced in 2021
• Expectation of 100% submission of all “research active” staff is correct.
• There will be a move to gain coherence between the REF and the TEF, in particular, the exam question for the Russell Group is how our research culture impacts and enhances the student experience and teaching and learning.
• Use will be made of HESA data and there will be cross-correlation between REF and TEF to ensure that there is not excessive game-playing in altering contracts of staff. Our management of our HESA data becomes very important in this scenario.
• Weightings are likely to be similar, as is the subject taxonomy and the reliance on a quality profile
• Impact cases and assessments of environment are expected to be at an institutional level

California

The project to establish, initially, a Graduate School and then a full campus just outside of the State Capital of Sacramento, California is continuing to progress. The regulatory environment allows us to start with 2 courses only and we have chosen Masters degrees in the area of data analytics and behavioural science. These have been through University approval processes and we will soon be submitting for approval to operate the University of Warwick in California from California’s Bureau and Private Post-secondary Education.

London

The University is continuing to build its presence in London. Our position as one of the founder members of the Alan Turing Institute means that we have significant research activity in progress involving colleagues from Computer Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics. Warwick Business School’s operations from the Shard are going from strength to strength with a range of taught provision including MBA and DBA programmes and Executive Education with a range of clients including the Bank of England. There is also activity in relation to CUSP and he London Film School.

Warwick in London, under the leadership of Professor Abhinay Muthoo, is a University wide unit which is currently working with a variety of academic units to deliver a range of non-award bearing short courses.

Visas

Our licences to sponsor international students and staff are due for renewal and the University may well be subject to an audit of its processes. HR have asked me to remind everyone of the importance of complying with the ‘Right to Work in the UK’ page. The link to the page is here . The updates can be found at the bottom of the page under the title ‘Recent Updates’. HR Advisers will routinely circulate this information to HoDs.

Modern Slavery

The University – like other large employers – is required to produce an annual statement setting out the steps taken during each financial year to ensure there is no modern slavery in the University and its supply chains. This policy has been signed off by Council and will appear on the University’s web site in due course.

Year End Finances

You’ll probably be aware the University has achieved a higher than expected surplus at the end of the 2015-16 year. In part this reflects the higher than expected student recruitment, a significant cost savings and also the recognition of significant R&D tax credits. The size of the surplus is og huge importance as it is the surplus which will fund new capital investment in both buildings and equipment.

Capital Projects

Plans for a new Humanities Building are progressing well as are the plans for an inter-disciplinary research facility on Gibbet Hill

Warwick Monash Alliance

Our alliance with Monash has been extended for a further five years and the Alliance itself has recently been recognised with a major award in Australia. The Warwick-Monash Alliance Board will be meeting in Melbourne in early December

Shanghai

The Vice Chancellor has recently signed an MoU in with Zhizhu Higher Education park in central Shanghai. This will potentially provide the University with a physical base in Shanghai from which a range of partnerships can be developed alongside options for in-country teaching. Lawrence Young is currently leading a scoping exercise around options a proposed Shanghai base.

Guild of European Research Universities

The Guild of European Research Intensive Universities, an initiative which Warwick has been leading, was formally launched in Brussels in late November. Along with the University’s European Advisory Board which met earlier in November, this development (which has been led by Jan Palmowski) will help ensure that Warwick continues to be actively engaged in Europe.

Best wishes,

Adam Waddingham : 06 Feb 2017 10:25 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem