Vice-Chancellor's start of term message for all staff: 12/01/2016
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
We have just started one of the most significant terms in the University’s recent history - celebrating our past; investing in the present; and laying the foundations for the future.
In less than two months, we will be celebrating the 90th anniversary of the University. It is a celebration of our committed and passionate community – our outstanding and ground-breaking research; our brilliant teaching; and the good we do in society. This is a moment not simply to look back but an opportunity to look ahead to the institution we will be by the time of our centenary in 2026.
Thursday 17 March – 90 years exactly since we received our Royal Charter – will be a day of celebration. Birthday cake will be available between 1pm and 2pm, and a record-breaking attempt at recreating the moment news of our Charter reached Reading. There will also be a special meeting of the University Court in the evening, a more formal occasion that will include the presentation of honorary degrees. For more details, including how to sign up for the event, click here.
Henley Business School continues its 70th anniversary celebrations with the student competition ‘Henley Challenge’, a Young Leaders Event for business leaders in March and an alumni dinner in May.
University of Malaysia opening
Our global reach and the access we have to students and staff across the world will play a key role in our future. That is why I am so excited about the official opening of our Malaysia campus on 25 February. It is a clear statement of our ambition – a state-of-the-art campus, top-class courses and the foundations for future great research in some of our strongest academic areas: business, psychology, law, real estate, surveying and pharmacy.
The University of Reading Malaysia is not a remote outpost – the staff and students are an integral part of the day-to-day life of the University and they enrich our whole community.
Our colleagues in Johor Bahru set high academic standards and demand a lot from their students. In that respect, they are no different to our staff working in the UK and in South Africa. They use the same up-to-date and innovative approaches to teaching, designed to get the best results and ensure that every single one of our graduates, wherever they study, are equipped to work anywhere across the world.
We are committed to building a spirit of collaboration and plan to develop further opportunities for colleagues to work across our campuses. This is an outstanding opportunity for career development for all interested staff.
Research and innovation
The implementation of our new Research Strategy, under Professor Steve Mithen, our Deputy Vice-Chancellor and PVC for Research and Innovation and five Research Deans, is well underway - with four research institutes and 36 Research Divisions. We have already invested in additional support for research grant applications; business development; impact tracking and management; and public engagement and communications.
The Institute of Environmental Analytics is formally launched on Tuesday 26th January by Defra Minister Rory Stewart, following hard work setting up the project last year, under the new CEO Colin McKinnon and team. This is a marker for the future - that while curiosity-driven research remains our bedrock, the University will be enhancing its commercial offer and the work it does in partnership with industry.
Student recruitment
We welcomed 3824 undergraduates to Reading last term - an 8.8% year on year rise overall and an 18% rise in incoming students who met or exceeded the terms of their conditional offers. Our autumn Open Days were 'sell-outs' and we are well placed to maintain the strong levels of interest we saw last year.
The annual undergraduate application processes closes on Friday 15 January and we will be sharing those numbers with you soon. This includes the first cohort of students in the new School of Architecture starting in September.
The position on postgraduate and international recruitment remains tough and we are doing all we can to redouble our efforts on that front. As ever though, I am enormously grateful for the hard work and commitment displayed across our campuses in promoting our courses. It is crucial that we maintain this level of activity to keep pace with our competitors.
Capital investment programme
Greater competition means we need to continue investing in our facilities. We have opportunities that others don’t, not least because of our substantial land bank and careful management of assets.
This will enable us to increase the capacity of our teaching and study spaces to meet rising demand for places, including the University Library and URS Building, as well as through smaller but still significant projects. We will also be setting out more of our plans to co-locate, over time, our academic disciplines in clear research and teaching 'zones', including proposals for a new Health & Life Sciences Building.
Momentum is also building on the Thames Valley Science Park, due to open for business in spring 2017. The University Council meets later this month to agree final funding for the first phase, for which we have secured planning permission for the necessary utilities infrastructure; transport access; and the state-of-the-art central Gateway Building. The Eastern Relief Road project is now well advanced and due to be completed in the summer. We expect the first spades on the ground before Easter.
On student accommodation, the University and UPP will be submitting a planning application to Reading Borough Council for the redevelopment of St Patrick's Hall. In doing so, we will modernise old facilities and provide much-needed extra spaces.
Diversity and inclusion
At Ask the Board events last summer, I briefed you on the work the University was undertaking to create gender and diversity balance at all levels. As I said then, while this is a sector-wide issue, I recognise that there is a pressing case for change at Reading from the University Executive Board down.
There has been a lot of work behind the scenes, led by the Deans of Diversity and Inclusion Professor Ellie Highwood and Professor Simon Chandler-Wilde and we will be setting out next steps in detail in the coming weeks. This term, we will be finalising our application to renew our ATHENA Swan status for another three years. Also, Professor Edith Morley's memoirs will be published this term to coincide with International Women's Day on 8 March and the annual Morley Lecture given by Karen Blackett, CEO of MediaCom.
Professional and Administrative Services review
We are now in the implementation phase of the Professional and Administrative Services review. The workstreams are aiming to provide substantive detail on the number and types of roles in the new structures by the middle of February. We have updated the PAS review section of the University’s website to provide you with information as it becomes available.
PAS is a challenging programme and has involved hard choices to free up more money to invest in frontline teaching and research activity. No university can afford to stand still given global competition, ‘marketisation’ and tighter public funding. Our aim is to create a stronger support structure and deliver on our long-term ambitions. Equally, I acknowledge that these changes will cause anxiety and concern on the part of many staff.
Department of Computer Science and Department of Bio-Engineering
In 2016, we will also fully implement the outcomes of the review of the School of Systems Engineering. Over the last term, the Restructuring Committee has worked closely with the UCU, Staff Forum and individual staff impacted, with final decisions being made very soon. We are though well on track for the new Department of Computer Science to open as part of the School of Mathematics and Physical Science and the Department of Bio-Engineering to open within the School of Biological Sciences.
National Student Survey (NSS)
The 2016 NSS opened on 11 January, and we will be launching our own campaign early next month. We will be in touch with you to set out the details but, as ever, Schools have a key role in encouraging students to complete the survey.
Our last results, published in August, were solid. We consolidated our overall satisfaction levels, even though it was the first cohort under the new tuition fee system. But there is more work to do. We are still just below the sector average for feedback and assessment. Twelve months ago, we introduced the 15-day turnaround limit on the return of work to students. This is not an optional extra. It is a crucial pledge - a clear expectation of the support that all students should expect from staff at the University.
There are two broader points to make about meeting the demand for excellent facilities, service and teaching.
First, the Competition and Markets Authority expect universities to meet their obligations to undergraduates under consumer law. To meet this obligation, the University Secretary Dr Richard Messer and Legal Services have been leading a project to draft, agree and introduce a new student contract for entrants this September. This will set out clearly students' rights to access the services to achieve a degree, balanced with their responsibilities as members of the University's community.
This is a significant project which formalises the existing Student Charter and brings together dozens of existing policies into a single document. I want Reading to be in the vanguard of a new approach from the sector. We will be setting out more detail on this in the coming term.
Second, the Higher Education Green Paper has set out plans to introduce a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) this year to assess, evaluate and hold institutions to account. It is optional for universities to participate - UEB is clear, however, that we must participate alongside our major competitors to shape the TEF, so that the workload requirements balance greater accountability with activity which actually improves teaching and learning. I am pleased to say that Professor Gavin Brooks is now part of a HE Academy working group liaising with ministers, so we really do have a seat at the top table.
University Executive Board (UEB) engagement
Following feedback from colleagues in the University, we are keen to maintain and enhance the visibility of UEB. My all-staff talks are coming up very soon. In addition, UEB members are happy to participate in ‘open-house’ sessions in Schools and Functions. Contact Rachel Helsby if this is something that you or your team would be interested in pursuing.
We now hold fortnightly meetings, and twice-termly longer sessions, with the University's full senior leadership group – in other words, all those who report directly to individual members of UEB. As far as possible, I am keen that as much information from these sessions is cascaded to colleagues across the institution.
UEB members, and others leading major projects, will hold more regular 'drop-in', lunchtime briefing sessions as we had on Research Strategy 2020, Global Engagement Strategy and University of Reading Malaysia during the last 12 months. We will use social media and video technology to ensure overseas colleagues, particularly in University of Reading Malaysia and HBS South Africa can play a full part.
So, all-in-all, 2016 promises to be a very busy and interesting year. I look forward to working with you as it unfolds and we see our University going from strength to strength.
Sir David Bell KCB
Vice-Chancellor