Professor G Akehurst; Dr A Hussey; Dr J Mathers; Professor C McInnes; Dr J Medhurst; Mr N Perdikis; Professor P Schofield; Professor J Williams;

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1 SENATE Minutes of a meeting held on 15 February 2006 Present: Apologies: Professor N G Lloyd, Vice Chancellor and Principal, in the Chair; Professor J Harries, Pro Vice Chancellor; Professor L Pykett, Pro Vice Chancellor; Professor A G Jones, Pro Vice Chancellor; Dr N Beck; Professor J Barrett; Miss R Corn; Dr W J Edwards; Dr G Eyre; Dr J Fish; Mr B Gray; Mr N Hardy; Professor W Haresign; Dr M Hopkins; Mr G Huws; Professor M Jones; Dr F Long; Mr R Meyrick; Professor P Midmore; Professor P Neil; Dr S Nicholas; Professor C Price; Dr R Scully; Professor G A Williams; Professor T Woods; Dr R Wootton Professor G Akehurst; Dr A Hussey; Dr J Mathers; Professor C McInnes; Dr J Medhurst; Mr N Perdikis; Professor P Schofield; Professor J Williams; In attendance: Registrar and Secretary, Director of Planning and the Academic Registry, Director of Finance, Academic Secretary, Mrs Olwen Daniel; 31. CONDOLENCES Senate expressed its condolences to the families of: Professor Eric Briggs, former member of staff in the Department of French. Janet Humphreys, postgraduate student in IBS and IGER 32. MINUTES The minutes of the meeting held on 7 December 2005 were confirmed and signed. 33. CHAIRMAN S BUSINESS 33.1 RAE 2008 The guidance pack for the 2008 RAE had now been received and the details had been discussed at the departmental monitoring meetings. Preparations would now start in 1

2 earnest and there would be a series of engagements with departments to discuss strategic issues, to share good practice and to identify the works to be cited The University s financial position in 2006/7 The grant letter from the Funding Council was expected in the second half of March. In the meantime, work was underway on formulating a draft budget for 2006/7. The financial position for the coming year was summarised as follows: 1 The Funding Council had announced its overall allocation of resources to the sector. Funding for teaching would increase by 2.06% and for research by 2.46%. Funding for postgraduates and per capita funding would also increase by 2.06%, but other premium payments would be unchanged. There would be no increase in cash terms in the Research Investment Fund. 2. The effect on UWA was likely to be an overall increase slightly above 2.5%. 3. The new element was an estimated increase in income of about 3.5 million from the Supplementary Income Stream. 4. The overall financial objective was to establish an appropriate operating surplus of the order of 2 million, (about 3% of turnover). 5. It would be necessary to increase the university s contribution to the UWA Pension and Assurance Scheme and the Trustees were recommending that the rate of employer s contribution should be 22.05% (currently 15.9%), resulting in an increase in 2006/7 of about 620K. 6. UWA was committed to expenditure on bursaries. In 2006/7 this would be at a low level (about 250k), but rising in later years and reaching in 2009/10 to a steady state of the order of 3m, (about 30% of the additional income generated by deferred fees). 7. The report of the Condition Survey of the Estate revealed that an estimated expenditure of over 17m would be required to ensure academic buildings were in the sound category. This very serious position would need to be addressed over a period. A sum of 1million for additional backlog maintenance in 2006/7 would be included in the budget. UWA was also committed to similar expenditure on backlog maintenance of residences. 8. The significant shortfall in the number of overseas students this year was likely to be reflected in a smaller number next year simply as the result of progression at undergraduate level. The budget would contain provision for a reduction in volume of 10% (about 250K). 2

3 9. Negotiations on the Framework Agreement on the modernisation of pay structures were under way with the aim of implementing the agreement during 2006/7. The cost of migration to the single spine was likely to be of the order of 525K in a full year (corresponding to about 1.5% of pay costs). The effects of the role analysis was likely to be larger and it was impossible to predict the recurrent effect on the budget. 10. The largest income stream was derived from teaching Home/ EU undergraduates and the number of applications received this year was about 10% down on last year. This was potentially serious as UWA would be subject to clawback if it did not achieve its funded student numbers in 2006/7 (each 1% of clawback in teaching funding would cost about 225K). 11. Side by side with admissions was the importance of ensuring a high degree of retention. In 2005/6 the progression rate from Year 1 to Year 2 was 80.6% (having been 85.5% the previous year). 350 to 400 Year 1 students were lost each year (from withdrawal and failure in examinations). The Pro Vice Chancellor would be discussing admissions and retention with departments in the next few weeks. 12. For the first time the effect of Full Economic Costing would be observed, since successful grants would draw in significantly higher income, thus helping to address the issue of sustainability. However, it was now clear that the volume of research grants would fall as a result and consequently the competition for grants would intensify further. A modest increase in income from this source had been included in the budget. 13. About 1m of resources would be committed to match the 630K from HEFCW in preparation for RAE The financial consequences of the RAE were imponderable. 14. A figure of 5% was being included to cover the negotiated salary increase for 2006/7 plus the cost of implementing the Framework Agreement. In addition to this increase there would, as usual, be incremental drift of just over 1% (equating to about 350K.) 15. Putting all these factors together led to an operating surplus of about one half of the target. Under these assumptions about 65% of the additional funding deriving from the supplementary income stream was expended on the costs of staff currently in post. This projection would inform the forthcoming Planning Round where the ability to release resources would be based primarily on generating savings from those departments in RAS deficit. 16. In subsequent years, further increases in pensions contributions were quite likely, further expenditure on infrastructure would be essential, and the University would wish to invest both in research and in improving provision. Even if clawback could be avoided, increases in recurrent grant of more than 2.5% per annum could not be 3

4 expected. Thus UWA would continue to experience a squeeze of over 500K per annum as a result of the automatic shortfall of increases in recurrent grant relative to increases in costs, a factor which had over recent years affected the financial security of the sector. 34. APPOINTMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES Resolved: That the following be appointed Senate representatives: 34.1 Council (to ) Professor P Schofield Professor P Neil Mr R Meyrick Dr J Mathers Dr M Hopkins 34. Staffing Committee (to ) Professor C McInnes Dr Gayner Eyre (alternate) 35. Health, Safety and Environment Committee to ( ) Professor M Jones 36. REPORTS OF COMMITTEES The reports of the following Joint and Senate Standing Committees were received and adopted subject to the points noted below: PARC Academic Affairs Faculty of Arts Executive Faculty of Science Faculty of Social Sciences School of Welsh Medium Studies Research Degrees Board Careers Advisory Board Ethics Committee for Research Procedures Charter Committee

5 36. PARC Actum 24 Research and Enterprise Partnership It was reported that the Welsh Assembly Government had approved the 10.95m funding package for the Research and Enterprise Partnership between Aberystwyth and Bangor. The announcement had been made by the Minister for Education and Life Long Learning on 8 February Actum 25 Furlong Review of ITT The Furlong Review of ITT had now reported and had made a number of fundamental recommendations for future arrangements for Initial Teacher Training and related issues. The report was predicated on the assumption that Wales should train only as many teachers as it required. The main recommendations of the review were: 1. the number of places for Primary ITT training should be reduced by 50% 2. the number of places for Secondary ITT training should be reduced by 25% 3. BA(Ed) courses should be phased out, so that ITT became a wholly postgraduate course 4. 3 schools of teacher training be established (one for S.E.Wales, one for S.W.Wales, and one for the rest of Wales) The Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) had held initial discussions with the Head of the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, including consideration of a number of potential scenarios for future development of ITT in the light of the recommendations in the Furlong Review and their potential impact on Aberystwyth. The University was also in discussions with UW Bangor on this issue Actum 26.4 Monitoring Institutional Sustainability It was reported that Planning Group had approved a preliminary draft of the framework document on monitoring institutional sustainability, as requested by the Funding Council. UWA Council would be invited to approve the document at its meeting on 29 March. In addition to the need to develop and extend the range of alternative sources of funding there was a requirement for a review of what the University s expectations for income generation were, and the resources required to sustain its actions. The Vice 5

6 Chancellor, in consultation with the Senior Management Team, would be considering UWA s future strategy for fundraising Actum 26.5 Supplementary Income Stream (SIS) and Fee Plans It was reported that the University would receive funding from the Supplementary Income Stream in lieu of variable student fees for 2006/07. The University had not yet been informed of its individual allocation, but expected to receive c 3.5m, including funding for ITT. The University did not know to what extent it would be required to account for spending this money. The Funding Council had held a Consultation Seminar last November, where it outlined a number of issues. The main area of concern related to fee plans. HEFCW would require HEIs to provide information on how they intended to use a portion of the SIS (for 2006/07) and subsequently a portion of the income generated by variable deferred student fees (2007/08 onward). The fee plans would relate to 30% of the new sources of income and the range of purposes to be included would involve two areas: Bursaries, including the NBS A range of measures relating to Reaching Higher. The issues of monitoring plans for expenditure from the SIS and subsequent deferred flexible student fees remained an area of uncertainty Actum 26.9 Funding post 2006/07, including Scholarship and Bursary arrangements It was reported that the Planning Group had considered four potential models for excellence bursaries and had recommended the adoption of Model A Excellence bursaries in specified subjects, which was the current arrangement and was consistent with what was likely to be included in the National Bursary Scheme. Planning Group had also considered six possible models for means tested bursaries and had recommended adopting Model 6 on the grounds that it provided a greater opportunity to be sensitive to student financial needs and provided an appropriate level of funding to match that available in England. The 2007/08 new intake would be the first group of students eligible for the means tested bursaries: the 2006/07 cohort would be liable for fees in 2007/08 and 2008/09, but would not be eligible for a meanstested bursary for those two years. It was noted that the WAG guidance on the fee plans provided some allowance for spending on research under the promotion of research element. As part of the requirement to spend the 30% it might be possible to account for some of the 6

7 expenditure as UWA s contribution to additional research posts in preparation for the 2008 RAE, specifically prior to attaining the steady state position on expenditure on the provision of Bursaries Actum Strategic Support for 2008 RAE It was noted that the Funding Council had announced the provision of 3m of targeted funding to assist institutions in preparing for the 2008 RAE: 2m of this was derived from funding provided in support of the Reaching Higher agenda. The funding would be allocated to individual HEIs on the basis of the number of units scoring 4 in the 2001 RAE. Aberystwyth had been allocated 631,579 based on eight units. Planning Group had approved plans to make seven appointments at Chair or Readership level, funded by a combination of the HEFCW allocation and the University s own resources. It was noted that these appointments would have to be funded for three years at least before the results of the 2008 RAE would have an impact on funding. 37 SCHOOL OF WELSH MEDIUM STUDIES Actum 10 Terms of Reference It was noted that changes had been made to the membership and terms of reference to reflect: a change of Chairmanship: the School would now be chaired by a Pro Vice Chancellor; the appointment of a Director of Welsh Medium Provision; the transfer of responsibility for the External Degree through the medium of Welsh to the School of Education and Lifelong Learning. The revised Constitution and Terms of Reference were received and noted. 38 CHARTER COMMITTEE Actum 16 Charter and Statutes: Suggested Amendments It was reported that Charter Committee was continuing its consideration of proposed amendments to the Charter and Statutes. The changes arose from the changes in the role and statues of the University of Wales and from UWA s application for Degree Awarding Powers. 7

8 Three clear stages were emerging in the process of revising the documents: 1. the initial tidying up and modernisation of the Charter and Statutes; 2. the result of the culmination of the DAPs process; 3. the application for University title following the award of DAPs. The institution had also been advised of the essential issues that should be retained in the Statutes, and that all other issues should be moved into the Ordinances in order to minimise the involvement of the Privy Council in the approval of future amendments. It was also reported that further consideration would be given to the size of the Council, currently 47 compared to the recommended CUC maximum of 25. Consequently, the number of Senate representatives on Council was likely to be reduced from the current 10. The role of the Court was also under review. 39. COUNCIL STANDING COMMITTEES The report of the meeting of Council on 20 December 2005 was received. OMD/hwd 8