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University of Reading

Draft Charter and Ordinances - Message from the Vice-Chancellor

Thursday, 16 October 2014

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University Shield

Dear colleague

Today, we are launching a consultation with all staff on our proposed Charter and Ordinances, which together form the constitution of the University of Reading, and I would like your input.

The Charter, the University's core constitutional document, was drawn up when Reading became an independent institution in 1926. Granted by Privy Council, acting on the authority of The Monarch, it constitutes the University as a legal entity and gives us the power to award degrees.

The Charter has barely been touched since then and, alongside the Statutes and Ordinances, is anachronistic, complex, and, in some cases, not compliant with employment law. As we forge ahead with the University Strategy and its ambitious programme to realise our vision for 2026, our centenary year, we need governance structures that are fit for purpose.

To that end we have, as I set out in my message to you in May, been reviewing our ‘instruments of governance' - that is, our Charter and its accompanying Statutes and Ordinances.  We now have an updated Charter and new Ordinances in draft form. These are only drafts: it's now over to you to comment and help us reach a final version.

Thank you to those of you who have commented so far. The process of consultation to this point has included discussions with UCU, RUSU and Deans, as well as discussions at Council, University Executive Board and at Heads of School meetings. We are now formally consulting with UCU and our own Staff Forum on HR-related aspects of the update, and, by way of this email, asking all staff for their input on the full drafts.

This all-staff consultation is an extremely important stage in our reform of the governance of the University and I encourage everyone to engage in this process by reading the draft documents and sending feedback directly to erin.murphy@reading.ac.uk by 3 November 2014.

You can ask questions of me and University Executive Board (UEB) members on this and any other topic at our Ask the Board events which start next week.

Both the new drafts and the original versions are available online to allow direct comparison, along with detailed FAQs, at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/charter-reform/

The key changes in the draft are:

  •  An increased emphasis on academic freedom. Our purposes as a university are research and teaching, and academic freedom is fundamental. We are therefore proposing that we include a specific provision on the principle of academic freedom within the Charter. In addition, we are proposing that key HR policies contain the University's commitment to act in accordance with the principle of academic freedom.
  • Statutes have been removed entirely, leaving us with a Charter and Ordinances. We have taken the view that they add an unnecessary and unhelpful level of complexity. Key provisions from the Statutes - including academic freedom - have been elevated to the Charter itself. Other matters have been moved to the Ordinances or, for detailed matters, will be set out in revised regulations, policies and procedures.
  • It is therefore proposed that Statue XXXIII, which contains disciplinary, ill health, performance management, grievance and redundancy procedures for academic staff, is removed. The requirement to have suitable, fair and reasonable policies governing these matters been moved to Ordinance B5, with the substance set out in policies.

    Key differences are:
    • One set of policies apply to all staff
    • Simplified, faster and less adversarial disciplinary and grievance hearings
    • Changes to panels hearing disciplinary and grievance procedures
    • Changes to who hears appeals
    • Individual procedures for misconduct, ill health and poor performance
    • Simplification of the redundancy process to make it more transparent and streamlined.

There is a further change that is not part of, but results from, the updates to our Charter and Ordinances. This is that everyone's employment contracts will be updated.  Many contracts refer to the Statutes, and this will no longer be relevant. This is an opportunity for us to review and update all contracts, as well as to standardise them: there are currently too many different versions of the employment contract in existence.

The updates will reflect best practice and will ensure compliance with all relevant laws. Your rights to benefits such as your pension, holiday entitlement, sick pay and notice pay will be unchanged. There will be no substantive changes to contractual rights; rather, contracts will be refreshed to provide clarity and consistency across the University.

You can find more information on updates to policies and contracts in the online FAQs, and we are consulting formally on the proposed new policies and contracts with UCU and the Staff Forum.

Thank you for engaging in this vital process of bringing our governance up to date. Please do have a look at the information at http://www.reading.ac.uk/charter-reform/ and send feedback directly to erin.murphy@reading.ac.uk by 3 November 2014.

With best wishes

Sir David Bell KCB

Vice-Chancellor