Subject to approval at the 17 December 2015 meeting of Council
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
CNL/15/114
COUNCIL
A meeting of the Council was held on Thursday 15 October at 10.00am in the Council Chamber, Northcote
House.
PRESENT:
Pro-Chancellor, Miss S J Turvill (Chair)
Sir Michael Barber
Mr G Brown
Dr S Buck
Ms A Conroy
Ms J Hargadon
Mr R M P Hughes
Provost, Professor J M Kay
Mr P Lacey
Sir Robin Nicholson
Ms B Rigg
Professor M Ryan
Dr A M Shaw
Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, Professor Sir Steve Smith
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor N J Talbot
Ms Laura-Jane Tiley
Professor S Tomlinson
Ms S Turner
Ms S Wilcox
IN ATTENDANCE:
Head of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, Dr V J Alcock
Mr R Atkins
Director of Campus Services, Mr P J Attwell (in attendance for discussions under
minute 15.99)
Ms D Brett, Principal Project Director (in attendance for discussions under minute
15.100)
Director of Communication and Corporate Affairs, Mrs J Chafer
Chief Financial Officer and Acting Secretary to Council, Mr A Connolly
Chief Executive of the Students’ Guild, Ms T Costello
Director of Global Engagement and Development, Dr S Curtis (in attendance for
discussions under minute 15.99)
FXU President Exeter, Ms G Fisher
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor M Goodwin
Director of Transformation, Mr J Hutchinson (in attendance for discussions under
minute 15.100)
Executive Suite Officer Manager and Council Co-ordinator, Mrs J A Lloyd
Interim Chief Operating Officer and Director of Human Resources, Ms J A
Marshall
Director, Estate Services, Mr H F McCann (in attendance for discussions under
minute 15.99)
Ms L Mundy, Management Accountant (Transformation Programme) (in attendance
for discussions under minute 15.100)
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor T A Quine
APOLOGIES:
Mr N Bull
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Subject to approval at the 17 December 2015 meeting of Council
15.89
Chair’s Opening Remarks
The Chair welcomed Sir Michael Barber, Laura-Jane Tiley (Students’ Guild President), Grace
Fisher (FXU President Exeter), Sally Turner (Professional Services Representative), Professor
Michelle Ryan (Senate Representative) and Richard Atkins, in attendance for 2015/16 and a full
member of Council from 2016/17.
15.90
Declarations of Interest
Members NOTED the register of members’ interests in relation to the business of the agenda
including standing declarations of interest.
15.91
Minutes
The minutes of the meeting held on 9 July 2015 were CONFIRMED (CNL/15/91), subject to the
addition of Ms Bettina Rigg as ‘present’.
15.92
Matters Arising from the Minutes
(a) INTO (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
(b) It was noted that the Research and Corporate Strategies would be CONSIDERED at the
November Council Away Day.
15.93
Council 2015/16
Council CONSIDERED a paper on Council 2015/16 (CNL/15/92) and Dual Assurance Portfolios
(CNL/15/93).
Members APPROVED the following documents:
(a) The Standing Orders of Council.
(b) The terms of reference and membership of the Standing Committee of Council for 2015/16.
(c) The Scheme of Delegation.
Members NOTED the following documents:
(a) The Powers of Council (Statutes Section 10).
(b) The powers and composition of Council as set out in the Statutes (Section 9).
(c) Membership 2015/16, subject to amending the year to 2015/16 and Laura-Jane Tilley to
Laura-Jane Tiley.
(d) Dual Assurance Portfolios.
With regard to the Statement of Primary Responsibilities of Council, it was PROPOSED that the
Chair of Council along with Nicholas Bull and Bettina Rigg would take a further look at the current
Statement against the CUC guidance, with a view to bringing back to Council a revised and
amended Statement for approval.
15.94
Report from the Vice-Chancellor, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellors
(a) Council RECEIVED a report from the Vice-Chancellor, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellors
(CNL/15/94).
(i) Council APPROVED the immediate appointment of Professor Tim Quine as Interim
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) for the remainder of the Academic Year 2015/16 (until
31 July 2016).
(ii) Council ENDORSED the decision to purchase a parcel of farm land (14 acres), one
kilometre from the Penryn Campus at a cost of £151,111. It was noted that additional
costs in the way of site security and some limited services to enable academics to use the
field would be subject to review by the Capital Strategy Group.
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Subject to approval at the 17 December 2015 meeting of Council
(b) In addition to the written report, the Vice-Chancellor drew attention to the following:
(i)
Appointment of Registrar and Secretary - Mike Shore-Nye would be taking up the new
position of Registrar and Secretary, with effect from 4 January 2016, with overall
leadership and management responsibility for a wide range of professional services,
delivered centrally and within Colleges. Mike has been Chief Operating Officer at Queen
Mary, University of London since January 2013. Council APPROVED the appointment.
(ii)
Appointment of Deputy Registrar and Secretary - Jacqui Marshall, currently the Chief
Operating Officer (Interim) and Director of Human Resources, has been appointed as
Deputy Registrar and Secretary from January 2016. Council recorded its thanks to
Jacqui for the work she had undertaken as the Interim Chief Operating Officer.
(iii) Interim Academic Dean for Students – as the result of Professor Tim Quine being
appointed Interim DVC (Education), Professor Wendy Robinson (currently Associate
Dean for Education in the College of Social Sciences and International Studies), had
been appointed Interim Academic Dean for Students with immediate effect until 31 July
2016. Council APPROVED the appointment.
(iv) Director of Research - Dr Astrid Wissenburg had been appointed as the Director of
Research, starting on 16 January 2016. Dr Wissenburg was currently at the Open
University, where she had been Director of Research, Scholarship and Quality since
2012.
(v) Chief Information and Digital Officer - Alan Hill has been appointed to the role of Chief
Information and Digital Officer (CIDO) with effect from 4 January 2016. Alan Hill has
spent more than 30 years as an Army Officer and IT specialist, and has specialist
knowledge of cyber security.
(vi) Director of Living Systems Institute - the DVC (Research and Impact) briefed Council on
the appointment of Professor Philip Ingham FRS as the inaugural Director of the Living
Systems Institute. Professor Ingham was currently Vice-Dean for Research at Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore and Distinguished Professor at the Institute for Cell
and Molecular Biology at NTU. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the
Academy of Medical Sciences, EMBO Member and Member of the Academic Europaea.
He is best known for his work on the hedgehog signalling pathway in Drosophila and
Zebrafish, including the discovery of the Sonic Hedgehog gene that conditions vertebrate
limb development. He has pioneered the use of zebrafish as a model for understanding
human diseases. He has a deep commitment to interdisciplinary science and the ethos
we are trying to build in LSI. Philip will take up post early in the New Year, while
retaining some strong links to Singapore.
(vii) Resignation of PVC and Executive Dean of the Medical School - Professor Steve
Thornton, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the University’s Medical
School, has announced that he would be leaving Exeter to take up a new role as VicePrincipal (Health) at Queen Mary University of London, in the New Year. The process to
appoint an interim replacement was currently underway and headhunters had been
appointed to find a replacement PVC and Executive Dean of the Medical School.
(viii) Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering – Council would like to record its sincere
congratulations to Professor David Butler, Director of the Centre for Water Systems in
the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences who had been elected
Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The prestigious Fellowship was the
highest honour available for a UK engineer. The citation for Professor Butler’s
Fellowship described him as a “leading international authority in water engineering
renowned world-wide for his outstanding contributions to urban water management”.
(ix) Prevent – since 18 September, the Governing Body now had a statutory obligation to
prevent students being drawn into for support or participation in terrorist activity. Known
as the Prevent duty, this applied to all UK universities and was part of the Counterterrorism and Security Act 2015. Compliance with the duty would be monitored by
HEFCE. Chris Lindsay, Head of Governance and Compliance, has prepared a response
to the HEFCE consultation for consideration at VCEG on 19 October. A Prevent
Compliance Group has been set up to manage the work associated with this. Prevent
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Subject to approval at the 17 December 2015 meeting of Council
would be added to the revised version of the corporate risk register. A full briefing would
be presented to the December meeting of Council.
It was AGREED that the new Chief Information and Digital Officer be added to the
membership of the Prevent Compliance Group.
(x) Green Paper – the Vice-Chancellor briefed Council confidentially on the progress and
likely contents of the Government’s forthcoming Higher Education Green Paper. Key
themes anticipated were: future sector regulation, the proposed Teaching Excellence
Framework, the conditions for new entry into and exit from the higher education market,
and new widening participation targets publicly owned by the Prime Minister.
Sir Michael Barber noted that the government’s widening participation targets were
admirable and that it would be important to engage in the dialogue as the policy
developed so that universities like Exeter could help shape the agenda.
Richard Atkins noted that the trends within higher education are very analogous to those
within further education in recent years, where further education colleges had suffered
cumulative and substantial funding cuts. There were now a considerable number of
incorporated further education colleges that were on the verge of insolvency.
(xi) Conference (CONFIDENTIAL) – the Vice-Chancellor briefed Council confidentially on
the conference on ‘Settler Colonialism in Palestine & Workshop on the Naqab Bedouin’
hosted by the University on 2-4 October.
In discussion with members the following points were noted:
• Section 5 (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE) –
• Paragraph 1.2 – Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Concern was noted
regarding the drop in ranking in ‘Industry Income’. Although we were lagging on this
measure and it had a weighting of only 2.5% in the league table, there is enormous
potential for the University to improve its performance and develop deeper and more
meaningful corporate partnerships.
15.95
Financial Outturn 2014/15 (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
15.96
Audit Committee: Draft Annual Report (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
15.97
Remuneration Committee Report (Lay Members only)
Lay members of Council RECEIVED a verbal report on Remuneration Committee.
15.98
VCEG Residential 2015 (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
15.99
Capital Projects (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
Council CONSIDERED:
(a) DEVELOPING A CAPITAL STRATEGY
(b) FUTURE WORKPLACES PROJECT
Hugh McCann in attendance
(c) CHILDCARE FACILITIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
(reference minute 15.62)
Phill Attwell and Dr Shaun Curtis in attendance
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Subject to approval at the 17 December 2015 meeting of Council
15.100 Transformation Programme Update (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
(reference minute 15.65)
James Hutchinson, Debbie Brett and Liz Mundy in attendance
15.101 Admissions (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
15.102 Pensions Update (STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL)
15.103 Harassment and Lad Culture
(Ian Blenkharn in attendance)
Council RECEIVED a presentation from the Director of Education and Student Experience, Ian
Blenkharn titled ‘Dealing with Sexual Harassment and Violence. The presentation was available
on the Council website at: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/about/organisation/council/reference/agendas/
There were increasing incidents of ‘laddish’ culture in UK universities. National media coverage
highlighted students’ perception that universities could do more to support them when they
experienced sexual harassment or violence.
Business Secretary, Sajid Javid, had tasked Universities UK (UUK) to establish a Task Group and
work towards a code of practice to bring about cultural change.
In discussion with members the following points were noted:
• Whilst dignity and respect was mandatory training for all new staff, this sort of training was not
in place for students. The Director of Education and Student Experience was keen to explore
this further through a survey for students, but this would need to be completed each year.
• On the issue of sexual consent training, the Director of Education and Student Experience was
looking to work more closely with the Guild/FXU on this. The balance was currently in favour of
those who purvey this laddish culture. The University is also currently working on an alcohol
awareness project and alcohol free events.
• There seems to be a cultural shift in the pornification of teenage and childhood years which has
seen a massive rise in associated mental health issues being reported.
• The Students’ Guild #NeverOK campaign was important and needed to continue, possibly
relaunching every year. The Guild and Welfare were taking this further by talking to bars and
pubs, as well as talking to students about sexual violence. It was important for students to
know who they could turn to and that they can have confidentiality and anonymity.
• Bettina Rigg advised that she had been asked to contribute towards the UUK Task Force.
• A similar campaign to #NeverOK was also being run at the Penryn Campus called
NoBlurredLines.
• The Vice-Chancellor asked if Bettina Rigg could provide advice and guidance on how to deal
with the disclosure of disconcerting information.
15.104 Audit Committee
In the absence of the Chair of Audit Committee, Council RECEIVED an update from the ProChancellor (Finance) on the Audit Committee meeting held on 2 October 2015.
15.105 Senate
Council CONSIDERED an annual report from Senate for 2014/15 (CNL/15/105).
It was NOTED that under a CUC revision, one of the new proposed primary responsibilities of
Council would be to assure the quality of education programmes and academic outputs. Although
this was a proposed responsibility and not a current responsibility, it was felt that the Senate report
did not give the assurance of education that Council required.
It was AGREED that this should be revisited and that the four sub-committees should provide
individual reports for consideration at the joint meeting of Council and Senate in May 2016.
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Subject to approval at the 17 December 2015 meeting of Council
15.106 Remuneration Committee (STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL)
Council RECEIVED a report from the Remuneration Committee held on 28 September 2015
(CNL/15/106).
15.107 Council Nominations Committee (STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL)
15.108 Capital Strategy
(a) Council RECEIVED a report on infrastructure projects (CNL/15/108).
(b) BUILDING A HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT (COMMERCIAL IN
CONFIDENCE)
15.109 Innovation Exeter
Council RECEIVED a report on Innovation Exeter (CNL/15/110).
15.110 Student Complaints
Council RECEIVED a report on Student Complaints (CNL/15/111).
In response to requirements of HEFCE to address the Government’s concern to maintain the
quality of the student experience after the removal of student number controls, HEFCE had asked
institutions during 2014/15:
• To review arrangements for identifying and resolving early signs of student concerns or
complaints working closely with the student body to confirm that these arrangements are timely
and effective and will remain fit for purpose.
• To report annually on these arrangements to Council.
Going forward the annual reporting structure would ensure the annual Student Cases report, which
would contain a full analysis of student complaints data, would be submitted to the February
Faculty Boards and Dual Assurance (Education), the March meeting of Senate and the April
meeting of Council, to meet the HEFCE requirements with respect to complaints reporting.
15.111 Ordinance 16: Aegrotat Awards
Council NOTED Chair’s approval of amendments to Ordinance 16: Aegrotat Awards
(CNL/15/112).
15.112 Affixing the Seal of the University
Council AUTHORISED the fixing of the University seal to the documents listed in
CNL/15/113.
15.113 Chair’s Closing Remarks (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
ACJAL
12 November 2015
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