Professional Service input into Vision Setting at the VCEG Residential 2012
Overview
The revised planning and budgeting process, stemming from the Armstrong Review, is started with a Vision Setting phase. The aim of this phase is to set the framework within which Colleges and the Professional Services can do their 5-year planning. This framework comprises:
- targets relating to the University’s size, shape and nature over the 5-year planning period;
- key strategic priorities for the University;
- planning guidance for Professional Services and Colleges.
The setting of the targets and priorities will take place at the VCEG Residential in September. The purpose of this document is to provide a means for Professional Services to feed into this process.Once the Vision for the next five years has been agreed by VCEG, it will then be brought to the SMG Residential for discussion around the practical implications of its implementation.
Information requested
The attached template should be used by the Service to provide input into the VCEG Vision-Setting. Before you complete the template we recommend you consider the key environmental factors which will impact on the Service over the next five years, the potential opportunities and threats which these pose as well as your own internal strengths and weaknesses. With that analysis as background, please provide an overview of:
- The Service’s most important achievements over the last couple of years.
- The biggeststrategic challenges facing the Serviceover5-year planning period[1].
- What are your greatest strategic priorities for the Service over the next five years[2].
- Key messages the Service wants VCEG to consider in setting the Vision[3].
Process
Please complete the document and return to Iain Springate () by 24th August. The document should be no more than two pages of A4 (not includingany appendices).
The documents from all the Professional Services will be synthesised and approved by the Registrar, who will also be given the complete submission from each Service. The synthesised documentwill be given to VCEG along with the documents from the Colleges and the Students’ Guild.
If you have any questions on the document itself, or the process of developing the paper for VCEG, please speak to Iain Springate. If you have any comments about the document or process that could be used to improve the process for next year, again please let Iain know.
Steve Chadwick
Director of Strategic Planning and Change, July 2012
Achievements / Provide a brief overview of the Service’s most important achievements since the restructuring in 2010. This will be used to remind VCEG and SMG of how much the Services have achieved in this period.
Strategic Challenges / Summarise the (up to 5) main challenges likely to be faced by the Service over the next five years. These should be high-level strategic challenges, not operational issues. For example, “How can we continue to maintain good NSS scores whilst there is a disparity in the quality of learning spaces/facilities between/within campuses?” or “How can we ensure that there is sufficient learning and academic space in the context of planned student and academic staff growth?”We will use this information to ensure that the discussions at VCEG and SMG are sufficiently wide-ranging to ensure we address all key challenges.
Strategic Priorities / Outline what you consider to be the (up to 5) greatest strategic priorities for the Service over the next five years. For example, these might include: “Reducing our SSR from X to Y; Having at least X% of staff submitted for the next REF and at least Y% of outputs graded at 4*; Achieve no less than Y% overall satisfaction in the NSS by 2015”. We will use this section to ‘sense check’ the University’s strategic priorities in the Planning Framework.
Key Messages / Identify the key issues (up to 5) from your Service’s perspective that you want VCEG to consider when they are setting the University vision for the next five years. These could include, but not be limited to, priorities for the University to invest in over the planning period. This section is critical in ensuring VCEG and SMG are mindful of the Service’s major concerns when agreeing the planning framework within which all Colleges and Professional Services will need to plan over the next five years.
[1] These should be high-level strategic challenges, not operational issues. For example, “How can we continue to maintain good NSS scores whilst there is a disparity in the quality of learning spaces/facilities between/within the campuses?” or “How can we ensure that there is sufficient learning and academic space in the context of planned student and academic staff growth?”
[2] For example, these might include:“Reducing our SSR from X to Y; Having at least X% of staff submitted for the next REF and at least Y% of outputs graded at 4*; Achieve no less than Y% overall satisfaction in the NSS by 2015”.
[3] These could include, but not be limited to, priorities for the University to invest in over the planning period.