Humanities Faculty Plan – 2016

Faculty of Humanities Plan and Strategy 2016

Part One –Overview

A: Overall Strategy

(a) Introduction

This has been another good year for the Humanities Faculty as we seek to build on previous good work. Undergraduate teaching remains strong and our UG applications have increased through most parts of the Faculty. Our PG numbers have also increased in parts of the Faculty in a nationwide climate where applications are falling in some subjects. Research applications (number and total value) for 2014-15 went up, and awards for this year show an improvement on last year. We are increasing our engagement with colleagues and organisations outside of the HE sector year on year, with many relationships bearing real fruit. A number of other successes are mentioned in the rest of this document.

We echo something from last year’s plan. We believe that much of our strength lies in the positive atmosphere and high morale that has been created and sustained within the Faculty. The Dean and Faculty team attach the highest priority to maintaining staff morale. Without it, nothing else can happen. It is clear that the Faculty is an entity that matters to its staff, something to which they can relate and something they care about. This is shown by the cooperation between our Schools on a variety of different initiatives, and by the number of colleagues who apply for Faculty–level posts. We continue to believe that this atmosphere of cooperation will be of increasing importance over the next few years as we are challenged on a number of fronts, particularly with finances under great pressure.

We also repeat something central in last year’s plan. If there is one phrase that marks the past few years within the Faculty it is ‘realistic ambition’. We need to know where we are and what we can realistically achieve, whilst still being bold enough on a number of fronts to challenge others and lead. Whilst it is our Schools and subjects that, in the main, will be and should be known by various communities, we do not shy away from the thought that the Faculty itself should be known for various aspects of its work. This overarching idea continues into this year’s plan.

(b) Vision

(i) The Faculty welcomes the new Institutional Plan, 2015-2020. As always, we seek to push ahead on all three fronts: research, education and engagement. Our Facultyplan, our Schools’ plans, and the activity that lie behind all seven documents show our drive and energy. More details are provided of our work and achievements throughout the rest of this document, but some overview is required.

Our Faculty is confident in its abilities to deliver world-class education across a large range of disciplines and sub-fields, confident in the large amount of exciting research and scholarship that it produces, and strongly engaged with others across the HE sector and beyond. We believe that as we move closer to 2020 we will be known increasingly as one of the leading faculties in the UK for our arts and heritage work. The Humanities Faculty is open and transparent, and we look for leadership from all quarters and at all levels.

We repeat from last year’s plan the following thoughts. “It is clear that in a period when finances are tight, and tight because of increased competition around the sector, then it will be our ideas that set us apart. We will also have to be determined and focused enough to see those ideas succeed, and we will need to balance our ability to generate and sustain ideas with all of our ongoing commitments.” In last year’s plan we gave two examples to illustrate these thoughts. We update both examples here.

  • The Dean and others are developing a vision and strategy across the whole University for Arts, Culture and Heritage (ACH). A colleague from Arts Council England is on secondment with us and the Gulbenkianduring 2016 to help with this. Developing a vision of what the Faculty and University can achieve over the next five, ten, twenty years regarding ACH is of paramount importance to us: we see it as having central application across research (including impact and public engagement), education (especially UG and PG placements) and engagement (working with various organisations, from the local to the international, offering various secondment opportunities). We anticipate presenting a final vision and strategy document during Autumn 2016. Modest bids to help support our vision will be made so as to cement activity and encourage more. The Faculty is already playing a full role in many formal activities involving ACH in the county, and we will continue to play a leading role in Canterbury’s potential bid for European Capital of Culture 2023. Initial discussions with our colleague from ACE tell us that whilst there are many individual ACH activities that a range of universities pursue, no university has anything approaching a coordinated vision for their work, and so there is the potential for Kent to be genuinely pioneering.
  • Internationalisation: the past two years have seen the Faculty and all Schools refresh their efforts to increase the international mobility of the student body and to increase our recruitment of overseas students. During 2015-16 around 250 Humanities students went abroad for study or work through various schemes organized through IP. Architecture, Arts and SMFA have been working in concert for a while to pool resources regarding international recruitment, whilst English, History and SECL have been doing so for less time but with increasing success. We all believe that putting time and energy into international recruitment is worth it for long-term benefit. The coordinated internationalisation of Faculty personnel and our research is also an important emerging issue. We repeat an idea from last year: it would be beneficial to have a University team or office that catered specifically for visiting academics, and we think that more should be done to increase the range of bursaries for visiting fellowships. Lastly, we are strongly committed to the success of our European Centres and see them as pivotal to the long-term future of the University. We have recently been working with the European Office and FPA in order to make clear how they are financed in order to encourage growth and investment from our Schools. Below we indicate how we see the Centres growing over the next few years.

Whilst welcoming the new institutional Plan and the clarity it provides, the Faculty and our Schools would welcome a discussion concerning the various recruitment targets included in the Plan, what they mean for our subjects, and how the size and shape of our various student constituencies will change as we move towards 2020.

(ii) The Schools

In January the Dean sent letters to all six Schools indicating the Faculty’s priorities from now until 2020.Whilst other factors are part of the Institutional Plan, we regard the issues listed below as crucial and core.

  • ensure that your School is in a good financial state, and that it can meet the savings targets set by the University as a minimum;
  • maintain or increase (as relevant) student recruitment, in all aspects. We should also aim to increase average UG entry tariff whenever possible;
  • maintain or increase (as relevant) NSS scores, and pay attention to other relevant teaching metrics, in anticipation for the TEF that is very likely to be introduced soon;
  • ensure excellent preparation for a future REF across all three main areas: outputs, impact and environment. We want to ensure over the coming year that all UoAs have concrete plans and activity relating to their proposed impact case studies, with relevant data being collected. We also need to see an increase in external grant income, at least twofold, both in absolute terms and per research member of staff compared with REF2014. You should also ensure that all research staff are making at least one quality application for external grant income every year;
  • ensure that PhD completion rates continue to increase. Allied to this PRES and PTES scores should also see increases;
  • ensure that we continue to increase staff and student international mobility;
  • ensure that our centres in Athens, Paris and Rome flourish;
  • begin or continue to prepare for an application for an Athena SWAN Bronze award, which now includes all colleagues (academic, administrative, technical).

The Dean also mentioned the importance of student experience and academic community, and reiterated the importance of keeping staff morale high. Schools were given individual targets also.

The Faculty has been and continues to be acutely aware of the workload pressures that all colleagues are under, the Dean having convened working groups on workload and WAMs in 2013-14 and 20-14-15. We repeat a sentiment from last year: “We think that the University should balance any ambition it has with a recognition that not all colleagues can deliver on all fronts. Further, it is vital to our long-term health and flourishing that we recognize that Kent has got to where it is by developing a friendly, hard-working atmosphere that respects academic endeavour and freedom. In the current HE sector the Faculty is clear that this will be something that both helps to set us apart and enables us to recruit the best people.”

(c) Notable Specific Points for current year and 2016-17

For reports on last year’s ‘Notable Specific Points’, please see the Progress Report.

Recruitment

  • All Schools to work hard to maintain and increase UG numbers, and increase PG numbers
  • All Schools to work hard to increase UGaverage entry tariff
  • International recruitment growing, with plans underway to develop further
  • All Schools to refresh recruitment and marketing strategies during 2016-2017, with attention paid to all aspects (international, outreach, etc.). Refreshment of all strategies occurred during 2015-16.

UG Teaching

•Various new programmes ready to launch and to be readied during 2016-17

  • Review engagement with PMAS inSummer 2016
  • Further progress of Schools’ e-learning strategies during 2015-16, with all ready to move to online marking where appropriate for 2016-17.
  • Continue to support cross-Faculty BA in Liberal Arts; SECL now ‘holds’ half the recruitment target
  • Review NSS results in early Autumn 2016, as per normal
  • Dean to convene University Curriculum and Programme Design and Delivery task and finish group

PG Teaching and Supervision

  • Various new programmes ready to launch and to be readied during 2016-17
  • Review engagement with PMAS in Summer 2016
  • Schools continuing to roll-out online marking for PGT
  • Review PRES & PTES results in Autumn 2016, as per normal
  • New internal CHASE arrangements put in place; Dean on BGP3 working group
  • Encourage new Sklodowska-Curie Action European Joint Programme application, building upon TEEME
  • Dean to convene University Curriculum and Programme Design and Delivery task and finish group

Student Experience

  • Deputy Dean new lead for student experience; new Faculty committee to begin in Autumn 2016
  • Various initiatives at Faculty and School level: 3MT continuation as University-wide event;renewed emphasis on employability with increased placement terms and years, and spread of various internship modules; growing number of events and trips; increased involvement of alumni.

European Centres

  • Paris finances to be made transparent by end of 2015-16
  • Athens, Paris, Rome: increasing use as research centres
  • Paris: new MAs to be launched. Five year-long programmes begun. New programmes under development
  • Paris: encourage relations with Columbia
  • Rome: new MAs being discussed (Architecture, Religious Studies)
  • Athens: new longer-term MOU arrangement likely soon; internal admin. and financial arrangements sorted

Research, Impact, Innovation and Public Engagement

•Individual REF UoA monitoring every January, with action plans for each REF co-ordinator

•Faculty Research and PE Festivalhappened in Summer 2015

  • Questions of Space PE festival at Canterbury Cathedral June 2016; likely to be an annual event
  • Beacon projects continue: Projections March 2016, Stand-up Archive thriving; Tensegritree erected
  • First three Faculty ‘Grant Weeks’ in 2015-16, plus similar events in English
  • Faculty Practice-as Research network continues
  • Increase in AHRC PRC members during 2015-16, building on an increase during 2014-15
  • Faculty Director of PE role firmly embedded, with three School DoPEs (Arts, English, History) appointed in Summer 2015 and one more to come in 2016 (SECL).

Internationalisation

•Internationalisation website launched in Summer 2015

  • Faculty strategy of groupings for various recruitment work embedded
  • New student mobility opportunities in all Schools to be pursued
  • Increase in School funds for internationalization work

Staffing, Human Resources and Working Environment

•Deputy Dean and three Associate Dean posts all filled and begun on 1st August 2015.

  • WAMs in all six Schools under annual review and signed off by the Dean
  • History readying for Athena SWAN Bronze application in November 2016. All other Schools now actively participating.
  • ISPs – bedded down in Schools

Finances

•Every School to break even or better by 2019-20.

B: Timeline and Milestones

See separate Appendix A for the key milestones across the current year and next four years.

1

Humanities Faculty Plan – 2016

C: Financial Sustainability

The financial position of the Schools and the Faculty is thus

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
Outturn 14-15 in terms of RAM position / Outturn 14-15 as a % of Total income / Performance against budget 14-15 / Carry Forward position end of 14-15 / Revised Budget for 15-16 / Revised Budget for 15-16 as % of Total Income (FIN2 - Dec 2015) / Estimated Performance against YE Budget (after adjusting for Central Charges) / Strategic investment / Agreed CFWD spend
KSA / (197,225) / -4.47% / (14,181) / (69,427) / 163,834 / 3.24% / 5,476
Arts / 33,400 / 0.41% / 141,594 / 539,471 / (29,254) / -0.35% / 741 / 23,384
English / 283,953 / 3.51% / (155,879) / 38,024 / 246,735 / 3.01% / (170,396)
SECL / 305,003 / 2.35% / 389,139 / 842,992 / 257,316 / 1.88% / 585,146 / 30,000
History / 1,044,023 / 13.17% / 43,396 / 413,741 / 741,310 / 9.37% / (82,959)
SMFA / (1,062,257) / -34.94% / 8,255 / 107,853 / (1,069,099) / -34.82% / 6,049
Faculty budget / 12,353 / (16,788) / 146,228 / (49,145) / 27,275

This year’s FPA projections for each School – as presented in the FIN2 papers for Planning (+ive represents a surplus, -ive a deficit) - are as follows:

Projection 2016-17: year 1 / Projection 2017-18: year 2 / Projection 2018-19: year 3
KSA / 431,098 / 510,917 / 471,167
Arts / 461,181 / 585,822 / 641,406
English / 298,746 / 434,386 / 495,206
SECL / 551,238 / 726,204 / 720,725
History / 692,388 / 689,525 / 792,028
SMFA / -1,044,718 / -1,146,574 / -1,192,401

These are based on the SNPs from PBIO, agreed staff list position and roll forward budgets from 2015-16.

The projected RAM surpluses and deficits quoted here and below do not include the capital charge, as per FIN2s presented at the 2015-16 Planning meetings.

Commentary

Architecture: Having slipped into deficit in 2014-15, and with a projected deficit for 2015-16 last year, KSA has taken hold of its finances and has turned itself around markedly. The Planning meeting saw projectedRAM surpluses for the next three years of:£430k / 8.2% [2016-17]; £510k / 9.3% [2017-18]; and £471k / 8.5% [2018-19]. KSA has also gone from strength to strength in its application figures, with large increases posted during the current cycle. However, due to the space constraints of the subject, KSA finds it hard to capitalise on these applications financially, although it can seek to increase average entry tariff and it is still moving to a position of 2/3 Home/EU, 1/3 OS. Savings have been identified for this year and beyond.

Note: KSA has got itself back into a stronger financial position to make credible bids for two essential posts, one of which – an academic post in Digital Architecture - is left over from last year.

Arts: Arts has improved its projected position this current year from (projected) deficit of around £240k to near break-even. The Planning meeting saw projected RAM surpluses for the next three years of: £461k / 5.1% [2016-17]; £586k / 6.2% [2017-18]; and £641k / 6.5% [2018-19]. This is based on increasing student numbers, which is realistic given the rise in applications this year and the professionalization of the marketing and admissions office in the School. At time of writing Arts was in discussion with FPA about how to achieve its savings targets. Their budget is very tight with savings largely dependent on ad hocevents and activities (e.g. unexpected staff unpaid leave). Arts’ GR non-pay was set a number of years ago for a School that has grown by roughly 50% over the intervening period. They have cut back dramatically on their spend in this line, but they still overspend ever year because of the inadequate budget. (See also English below.) The Dean, Head, HoA, SAM and FPA will discuss in readiness for next year. Looking ahead expenditure will grow because of the costs of Arts’ staff base.

English:Recruitment of students is good within English, with an increase of applications this year, and this helps to feed into a healthy financial situation. The Planning meeting saw projected RAM surpluses for the next three years of: £299k / 3.7% [2016-17]; £434k / 5.2% [2017-18]; and £495k / 5.7% [2018-19]. As with Arts, English’s GR non-pay was set a number of years ago for a School that has grown by roughly 50% over the intervening period. They have cut back dramatically on their spend in this line, but they still overspend ever year because of the inadequate budget. The Dean, Head, HoA, SAM and FPA will discuss in readiness for next year. Savings have been identified for this year and beyond.

SECL: SECL is in a healthy financial situation. We are predicting a large positive variance by end of 2015-16 mainly because of unfilled vacancies, underspends in part-time teaching, and non-pay. The Planning meeting saw projected RAM surpluses for the next three years of: £551k / 4.0% [2016-17]; £726k / 5.0% [2017-18]; and £721k / 4.9% [2018-19]. SECL has made great strides in recent years in cutting its part-time teaching expenditure and in meeting its UG admissions target. Its very large increase in QR following REF2014 has also helped. Below the headlines there are some imbalances, financial and other, across the various subjects that constitute SECL, and the School is working hard to smooth those. Savings have been identified for this year and beyond.

History: History is also looking very healthy. We are predicting a large outturn for 2015-16. The Planning meeting saw projected RAM surpluses for the next three years of: £692k / 8.7% [2016-17]; £690k / 8.5% [2017-18]; and £792k / 9.4% [2018-19]. UG recruitment is routinely healthy and applications are again good this year. Savings have been identified for this year and beyond.