In-Depth Workshop Held on Academic Plan

Leadership Update
Date: / October2009
Subject: / This is the latestin a series of regular briefings containing University-wide updates.
Briefer:
Briefing guidance: / This briefing contains a summary of high-level, key messages to support youwithyour face-to-face communications with your direct reports.
Ideally, it should be communicated face-to-face to your direct reports by the end of the month –not circulated by email - and should provide an opportunity for your colleagues to give you feedback on the content.
It need not be presented verbatim. Please summarise where appropriate and deliver in a way you are most comfortable with to ensure that messages are authentic.
Please add your own content, which is relevant to your support division, faculty or area of expertise.
The briefing should enable your direct reports to brief their own people on some of the issues facing the University.
Please encourage your direct line reports to add more localised information which should still be delivered face-to-face at each stage of the cascade.
Allow at least an hour for the sharing of information and feedback.
Highlights this month: /

In-depth workshop held on Academic Plan
SalfordBusinessSchool gets AMBA accreditation
Changes in University Academic Regulations
New Centre for Applied Archaeology now open
Pensions update – flexible retirement scheme
Think Lab developments
Staff Experience Survey – equality and diversity issues
VC roadshows get underway

FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Why we need these briefings / The University acknowledges the need to keep its people informed. Employees perform better when they are involved and when they have an open and honest dialogue with their leaders.
Involvement creates good will and employeesare prepared to go the “extra mile”.Results of our recent experience survey show that only 39 per cent of our employees are engaged.
In addition, the SLT has highlighted three strategic priorities:

Leadership at all levels
Management of change
Non-pay related recognition.

This briefing will help support you in addressing the issues above and will supplement the new employee magazine, US, the Vice-Chancellor’s blog as well as US Online on the Staff Channel.
Business updates / 1. In-depth workshop held on Academic Plan
The Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) met in September for the first time with the Heads of School for a two-day, in-depth workshop on the University’s planning and budgeting for the 2010/2011 academic year and beyond.
The Academic Plan determines resourcing and investment needs in facilities and people. The focus at the workshop was the optimal mix of home and international undergraduate students across the full range of programmes of study.
The workshop identified those programmes that should stay the same size in order to improve their quality and others where the University would like enrolments to grow.
Some of the workshop outcomes were:

growth in enrolment of home undergraduates will depend on government policy on funding university places – this is currently subject to review and will be uncertain for some time to come
areas in which the University can grow both taught and research postgraduate enrolments and the investment that would be required to achieve this were identified
international enrolments were discussed and will inform the emerging Internationalisation Strategy
the University needs to consider enhanced opportunities for ‘blended’ teaching and learning – courses that combine both face to face and distance teaching and learning – and a wider range of opportunities for older and part-time students who need to combine both study and employment. Discussions at the workshop have now established a firm basis for making decisions about these types of provision.

The University is now in a position to determine its undergraduate and postgraduate student recruitment strategies for 2010 and beyond and to start to realise our Estates Plan, with significant investment in buildings and facilities. We will also be able to better understand the mix of employees and their conditions of service that we need to meet our academic objectives.
Bids are being invited for the Strategic Investment Funds (SIF) to help realise the Academic Plan as part of the planning and budgeting cycle for 2010/2011.
2. SalfordBusinessSchool gets AMBA accreditation
SalfordBusinessSchool has received accreditation for its MBA from the Association of MBAs (AMBA) following an accreditation visit last month.
It was in January 2007 when the School Executive decided to seek AMBA accreditation by September 2009, which was subsequently informally revised to September 2010. However, the original timescale has now been achieved, just three years after the creation of the School.
This is the first time the University has had a School with an AMBA-accredited MBA, one of the main kite marks of quality amongst business schools.
3. Changes in University Academic Regulations
The Senate has agreed important changes to the University’s Academic Regulations for Taught Programmes, which will emphasise the academic advantage to students of submitting work and attending examinations at the scheduled time.
The changes mean that, from this academic year, if a student fails a module and has not undertaken that module’s final assessment by the latest permissible date, the student will no longer be entitled to be reassessed in that module and will not be eligible for compensation. In such circumstances, students who have submitted a successful Personal Mitigating Circumstances (PMC) application by the deadline will have the opportunity to complete. In exceptional circumstances, a student may be permitted a reassessment even if the PMC application is turned down.
If the University allows students to continue their studies without attempting the last component of assessment in any failed module at the first opportunity, then the University faces serious adverse financial consequences. This would have a detrimental effect on the provision of teaching and other services to students.
These changes in regulations will ultimately benefit our students and the University as a whole, so colleagues are encouraged to ensure that Programme/Module documentation clearly identifies the final piece of assessment in a module. Programme teams should also take reasonable measures to remind students of their responsibility to undertake assessments.
As part of its next annual review of Regulations, Senate’s Learning, Teaching and Enhancement Committee may consider further changes including:

assessment requirements
the personal mitigating circumstances procedure
the monitoring of student attendance
student support, especially in respect of widening participation

Comments or questions about the Academic Regulations for Taught Programme should be directed to Stewart Smith-Langridge, Governance Services Unit, on
A separate email was sent to all students to explain these important changes and booklet forms were distributed to academic staff this month.
Important links
The updated regulations for 2009/10 can be viewed at Please pay particular note to 8.8.2, 9.2.7 and 9.2.6.
Complementary guidance including a summary of the changes, a glossary of terms and students FAQ’s can be found at
The Personal Mitigating Circumstances Procedure can be found at
4. New Centre for Applied Archaeology now open
The University of Salford’s Centre for Applied Archaeology is now open and is part of CUBE, our Manchester city campus. The core team of the Centre for Applied Archaeology are Mike Nevell, Adam Thompson and Brian Grimsditch who have years of experience between them in heritage studies.
The Centre has a full programme of work for the months ahead, including ongoing contracts with Tameside Council and a major project on the urban archaeology of Glasgow. Mike, Adam and Brian will work closely with the Centre for Construction Innovation (also in the CUBE) and the School of the Built Environment.The new team was previously with the University of Manchester, and they will continue to work closely with the University of Manchester’s Department of Archaeology.
The work carried out by our new Centre is critical for heritage in general. As well as projects involving the community, an important part of the new Centre’s work will include carrying out analysis and recording of sites which may be affected by redevelopment work. The Team is also looking to develop postgraduate teaching in conjunction with the heritage courses already running in the University’s Schools of the Built Environment and Art & Design.
5. Pensions update – flexible retirement scheme
The University introduced a flexible retirement scheme on 1 October 2009.The University values the knowledge, skills and experience of all its employees and recognises the benefits a flexible retirement scheme may offer both the employee and the University as a whole.
The scheme is available to qualifying members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) and Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
It is not available to members of the Universities SuperannuationScheme (USS). To qualify for consideration for flexible retirement, employees mustbe:

a member of either the TPS or LGPS
over the age of 55 (for LGPS members only there is an over 50 option, see policy document for full details)
prepared to reduce your income by at least 25 per cent. This would be achieved by either a reduction in hours or pay

Employees will be required to sign new contracts of employment to reflect the agreed reduction in hours/grade and any revised duties or working arrangements.
Apart from the general pay award and incremental progression, where appropriate, no additional payments can be made, this includes additional duties such as honoraria or acting up. Any additional hours worked, including overtime, would be taken in compensatory time off in lieu (TOIL) as agreed by management.
For full details of the terms and conditions please read the flexible retirement policy which can be found on the HR website at .
6. Think Lab developments
The Think Lab, located on the7thfloor of the MaxwellBuilding with its advanced virtual environment was opened two years ago. First led by Peter Brandon and now by Terrance Fernando, the Think Lab encourages multi-disciplinary thinking and new ways of working through collaboration, innovation, exploration and team work, supported by advanced Information and Communication Technologies.
The Think Lab plays a pivotal role in enhancing the international reputation of the University and helping academics to strengthen their research profiles. Whilst good use has been made of the Think Lab, there are opportunities for commercial development, which could potentially lead to extra income for the University.
With this in mind, a new business plan was presented to and approved by the SLT in September. The Think Lab will become a cost centre in its own right sitting within the School of the Built Environment (SOBE).
In the last 18 months 60 high level events have been held there.
The strategic direction will continue to come from the Management Board, and the External Advisory Board, both of which will havenew members to meet with the new objectives. In addition, there will be an Operational Board, which will ensure the successful execution of the proposed activities within the Think Lab.
Generation of income will come from two sources, one will be charging for the use of the Think Lab for projects that have external funding. A proportion of these funds will contribute to the operational costs and future expansion strategies of the Think Lab.
The other will be from increased research funding due to the development of new research approaches to address topical and fundamental issues, which will be identified through multi-disciplinary research.
7. Staff Experience Survey - equality and diversity issues
Following the results of our Staff Experience Survey (SES), which were published in February this year, consideration has now been given to the equality and diversity aspects of the survey.
These results were discussed at the Engagement & Consultation Forum in July, and then with the SLT in September.
Most prominent among the concerns that arise from those figures are the levels of general discrimination and/or harassment, exercised by management. Discrimination experienced by women, LGBT and disabled colleagues seemed particularly high. Especially concerning was the fact that, alone among the equality strands, only a few LGBT colleagues were prepared to answer any further questions about those experiences of unfair treatment.
Around 25-30 per cent of grievances received no response from the University. This is unacceptable and we will be addressing this by developing a grievance procedure that will fully track all complaints through to resolution.
Our disabled colleagues were less likely than any other group of colleagues to express satisfaction with their work experience at Salford, and far less likely to say they were treated with respect by colleagues.
The only way to address these concerns realistically is through meaningful, open consultation and dialogue with colleagues, coupled with constructive, practical steps for overcoming such problems in the future.
Since 2008, HR with the support of the leadership team, has taken steps to address directly some of these issues by:

working with the staff equality networks and the trades unions on projects sponsored by the Equality Challenge Unit to improve the rate of disclosure on the equality monitoring questions
collaborating with Student Life in the re-launch of the Bullying & Harassment Advisors’ Network
consulting employee groups on a new mediation policy and the launch of a mediation service that will be provided by employees who will receive training to become nationally accredited mediators. This service, which will be located outside the personnel function of HR, is actually one of the results of a full equality impact assessment of the University’s new Grievance Procedure
collaborating with the Governance Services Unit to raise the profile on the web of the form of support and guidance that is, or shortly will be, available to victims of discrimination and harassment
leading, in close collaboration with the LGBT Staff Network, the University’s response to Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index for 2010
working with the Black and Minority Ethnic Forum (formerly the Black Staff Network) in order to participate in a HEFCE-funded project on Black and Minority Ethnic Leadership.

Any solution can only work in practice with the active co-operation and support of all our colleagues. In this spirit, the leadership and management team are committed to a programme of positive engagement with colleagues – acknowledging that whilst problems may exist, we want to do our best to resolve these issues so that we create a positive working environment.
HR are already working on launching a new Equality and Diversity training programme for managers, which specifically focuses on how to handle complaints/grievances that may appear to have an equality dimension.
We will also be introducing a common model of expected standards of behaviour across the campus with checks, to ensure delivery.
It is crucial to our success that we are a workplace that operates good employer/employee relations. To achieve this it is important all colleagues abide by both the letter and the spirit of the workplace policies. As we move forward, well-motivated and hard working colleagues will be essential and we need to work together to make these changes a reality.
8. VC roadshowsget underway
In the first of the VC roadshows held on earlier this month, around 200 colleagues heard how the University’s current budget and finance situation would support our investment plans for the future.
Vice Chancellor Professor Hall explained that by taking a cautious approach to planning and budgeting the University was in a reasonably healthy financial position.
He also talked about how vital it is for the University to invest in its physical facilities to meet the expectations of new and potential students accustomed to top class facilities that exist in further education colleges today.Simon Attwell, Director of Finance, continued this theme as he discussed the long-term benefits of investing in areas that impact on the student experience. In particular, he encouraged colleagues to visit the newly refurbished University House.
As well as giving a breakdown of how each pound of income was spent in 2008/9, Simon also talked about the financial impact of student module non-completion rates and the effect it has on our funding (this is covered in more detail under section 3).The event finished with a 45 minute Q&A session, which featured a range of pre-submitted and questions from the floor.
Future VC Roadshows are scheduled for Thursday, 25 February 2010 and Wednesday, 26 May 2010.

FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY

Faculty/Divisional communications
Record of notes and feedback from briefing session:

FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY