Vice-Chancellor's Bulletin No. 6 - October, 2002
In the series of Bulletins which I started in November last year I aimed to keep you up to date with the changes happening within higher education and to discuss how these impact on us at Staffordshire University.
I would like to start this first Bulletin of the new academic year by thanking you for your hard work throughout the year. I will recap on the key issues which we face and our current position on each of these.
Student Recruitment
Full time Undergraduate Students
As we reported in the September issue of Executive News our enrolment picture reflects the drop in full-time under-graduate applications predicted earlier in the year. The major decline has been in subjects which are experiencing a downturn nationally. However, there are some areas which are buoyant and where we might have expected higher numbers than we achieved. The reasons are complex and we are experiencing quite sharply the results of government policy changes at a national level. Firstly, competition has increased. More students were able to secure a place at their first choice university than in previous years because the removal of the ‘cap’ on numbers has encouraged the pre-92 universities to expand. Secondly, as a result of this expansion, there were far fewer students seeking places at Clearing. This trend is likely to continue.
Part time Undergraduate Students
Our part-time numbers are also below target at the present time, but this is not unusual as students enrol at a variety of points throughout the year.
International Students
More positively, and in line with our plans, our full-time, full cost international student numbers are higher than last year. We believe, as many of your comments to me suggest, that there is room for even greater expansion in this market and we are working hard on this.
Retention
We have always believed that students come first at Staffordshire. This year, more than ever, we must ensure that all our students stay with us to the end of their course. Schools will need to look carefully at their retention rates and we will be making sure that we are doing everything we can to improve them.
I outline below some of the actions the University Executive Board is taking to address the situation, both short term and for 2003/4. Your ideas are welcome.
Maximising recruitment and retention
The University Executive Board (UEB) has produced a detailed plan of immediate measures aimed at boosting this year’s recruitment most of which will be implemented by November 2002. In this Bulletin I will concentrate on the immediate measures and in future Bulletins I will be reporting on the measures we are taking to improve our longer term position in the student marketplace. It is clear that in both we need to acknowledge changing patterns, not just in recruitment but also in relation to when, where and how study is undertaken. Provision for a second semester start and for more flexible part time study routes, for example, will encourage us to think radically. As part of our plan to cope with this year’s recruitment situation, we aim to:
· Promote and support University and School student retention strategies.
· Exploit the potential of semester 2 recruitment for as many programmes as possible.
· Establish targets and implementation plans for new full cost short course provision
· Repeat 'Your Experience Counts' in February and June 2003.
· Develop a new marketing strategy based on good information about likely student choices
· Put in place Schools’ plans for increasing Postgraduate student numbers.
· Plan and implement a new University wide part-time award programme to increase part-time numbers significantly
Budget 2002/3
We are obliged to balance our budget at the end of each financial year and our recruitment position puts a severe strain on our ability to do this in the current year. However, anticipating the difficulties we were likely to face in Clearing, our budget for 2002/3 set aside an amount of £2M as a contingency to safeguard against student under-recruitment. At this stage the figures suggest that we will need to use this contingency to offset the shortfall in income. The drop in numbers will, of course, have impact on future years’ budget as the smaller cohorts move on. It is very important that Deans of School and Directors and Heads of Services take into account the longer-term effects of our student recruitment position in 2002/3 as they develop their budget proposals and expenditure plans for future years. Meanwhile, we continue with our savings plan. You will recall that in Strategic Futures we committed ourselves to reducing the University’s overall staffing bill.
· We need to reduce the proportion of our income spent on staffing to no more than 55.5% by the end of this financial year. This includes a reduction in management costs.
I will be reporting to you throughout the year on the progress we are making against these targets. All spending comes under a School or Service heading. School budgets for 2002/3 were determined using the ABC (Activity Based Costing) Model. This relates categories and numbers of staff and non-staffing expenditure to the number of students studying in the school. For some Schools, the decline in student numbers means that we must introduce a two-year plan to reduce staff numbers in certain categories and cut other costs too.
Budgets for all services for 2002/3 were reduced by 5% compared with 2001/2 and again this will result in some reductions in staffing levels to meet the cost reduction targets.
We are very keen to respond in a planned way and to maximise ‘natural’ staff losses. I believe that it is only through the energy and commitment of our staff that we will deliver the change programme which we need to keep us successful. It is this context that I asked Steve Bloor to send a special information note to all staff on 24 July about 'Staff Changes and Security of Employment' together with a package containing the following supporting documents:
· A new Security of Employment Policy setting out the University's commitment to work actively to support security of employment and reduce the risk of compulsory job losses throughout the period of change.
· A new Redeployment Procedure and new Workforce Planning Procedures intended to contribute directly to required change by making maximum advantage of the 180 (approx.) 'natural leavers' from the university every year.
· A new Managed Severance Scheme intended to support required change especially in those areas where there is a lower level of 'natural leavers'
The redeployment policy and new workforce planning procedure are already having a positive impact. We will do everything we can to ensure that essential vacancies are filled internally whenever possible. We will not be using Agency staff for the foreseeable future. A number of requests for information have been received from colleagues in regard to the managed severance scheme. The first meeting of the panel to consider formal applications will be held in early November 2002.
The review of University professional support, which is also impacting positively on our cost reduction programmes, is making good progress and I will provide a full update in my next Bulletin.
Structures
Our new management and organisational structure came into operation on 1 August 2002. The September Executive News provided some information about the early work of the UEB and some more details of the roles of some individual members of the Board. I am pleased to report that the Board is working very well and I am confident that it will lead and deliver our new strategic agenda. We have some tight deadlines and programmes of work, with a brief to oversee cost reduction, including management costs, and to increase income, through better recruitment and retention, and in a range of other ways which I outlined in the ‘Strategic Futures’ document.
Most colleagues will be aware that Professor Pat Robotham the Dean of School of Sciences is leaving the University in early November 2002 to take up a new position at another higher education institution. The UEB has decided that we should not replace the post of Dean of School, but establish, on a formal basis, the Academic Cluster of Health and Sciences. (I appreciate that ‘Academic Cluster’ may not be the best phrase, but I want us, for the time being, to be putting our energies into change and new developments, rather than internal titles). It is very appropriate that Sciences, having hit full recruitment this summer across the School, joins with the very buoyant area of Health, where there are already some close synergies. This will be a winning combination and the argument to maximise the two sets of strengths have convinced the University Executive Board that, in this case, the whole will be stronger than the two parts.
The formal establishment of the new Academic Cluster of Health and Sciences means that the two existing schools of Health and Sciences will be merged to form the new Cluster from November. I have asked Dr. Teeranlall Ramgopal, the current cluster Director to lead and managed the Cluster on a permanent basis. The senior management team will be:
Director of Cluster Teeranlall Ramgopal
Associate Deans of Cluster: Tom Cochrane
Hilary Jones
Jane Mitchell
Roger Roberts
Steve Wyn-Williams
Business Managers: Sarah Boot
Trevor Knight
The cluster concept allows us to move our organisational structures forward in ways that take advantage of market demand and opportunities with the minimum of internal upheaval.
I am grateful for the continuing commitment of all staff to this University and its future. We face difficult challenges and I appreciate that the necessary change process we are in is very demanding for colleagues. Resource constraints often frustratingly tie our hands, yet I remain very confident that with your help and positive support we can and will deliver successfully our strategic futures agenda.
There has been much talk again in recent weeks about mergers. Our determination is to go forward with belief in our mission and confidence in our staff. It is clear that the face of higher education is changing, that recruitment and Clearing will never return to what we once knew and that, by choosing change, rather than fighting it, we can seize this opportunity to strengthen our position and our future.
In future Bulletins I will report on our budget both in terms of income after we have seen the final position, and cost savings. I will report on the progress of plans to focus what we offer and how we market this. I will also report on actions we are taking to increase the flexibility of our calendar and timetables and to attract new and different kinds of students. Please let me know if there are other areas you think it would be helpful for me to cover in the Bulletin, or, as ever, let me have your thoughts, ideas and responses.
Again, my thanks for your work and commitment.
Christine King
Vice-Chancellor
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