UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
CNL/14/16
COUNCIL
A meeting of the Council was held on Thursday 27 February 2014 at 2.00pm in the Council Chamber,
Northcote House.
PRESENT:
Pro-Chancellor, Miss S J Turvill (Chair)
Mr C J Allwood
Provost and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor N Armstrong
Ms H Barton
Mr G Brown
Dr S Buck
Mr N Bull
Ms A Conroy
Professor K E Evans
Ms J Hargadon
Mr P J M Hodges
Mr R M P Hughes
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor J M Kay
Mr P Lacey
Professor D A Myhill
Sir Robin Nicholson
Mr C C Pomfret
Ms B Rigg
Dr A M Shaw
Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, Professor Sir Steve Smith
Professor S Tomlinson
Ms S Wilcox
IN ATTENDANCE:
Director of Communication and Corporate Affairs, Mrs J Chafer
Chief Financial Officer, Mr A Connolly
Chief Executive to the Students’ Guild, Ms T Costello
Chair of the High Performance Computing Governance group, Professor R Everson
(in attendance for discussions under minute 14.10)
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor M Goodwin
External Assessor, Mr J F Lauwerys
Exeter FXU President, Mr C Malyon
Director of Human Resources, Ms J A Marshall
Acting Chief Operating Officer, Mr G Pringle
Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Director of Academic Services, Ms M I
Shoebridge
Executive Officer, Mrs J Williams
APOLOGIES:
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor N J Talbot
14.1
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Members had been notified by correspondence that Dr. Claire Baines had resigned from her post
of Chief Operating Officer with effect from 28 February 2014 in order to return to a portfolio career
which she undertook, and greatly enjoyed, prior to joining the University. Members NOTED that
Professor Neil Armstrong would become the inaugural Provost for the University with immediate
effect and RATIFIED the appointment of Geoff Pringle as acting Chief Operating Officer for a
period of 18 months.
As previously resolved by Council, the Chief Operating Officer would have the authority to assume
the statutory role and responsibilities of the Registrar and Secretary as set out in the University’s
Statutes and Ordinances.
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The Chair welcomed Geoff Pringle as acting Chief Operating Officer, Jane Chafer, Director of
Communication and Corporate Affairs, Gerry Brown as a new Lay member of Council and John
Lauwerys (External Assessor for the Council Effectiveness Review) to the meeting.
14.2
Declarations of Interest
Members NOTED the register of members’ interests in relation to the business of the agenda
including standing declarations of interest.
14.3
Minutes
The minutes of the meeting held on 12 December 2013 were CONFIRMED (CNL/13/130).
14.4
Matters Arising
(a) MINUTE 13.120 SCIENCE PARK (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
(b) MINUTE 13.114 ANNUAL REPORT: HEALTH AND SAFETY
CONFIDENCE)
(COMMERCIAL IN
(c) INTO/EXETER UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
14.5
Vice-Chancellor’s Report
(a) Council RECEIVED a report from the Vice-Chancellor (CNL/14/1), which covered the
following topics:
(i)
Announcements:
• It was with great sadness and regret that the deaths of two retired colleagues, and a
former lay member of Council were announced:
Anne Pitman (nee Worth) passed away on 14 February after a long illness. Anne
spent 18 years at the University in a variety of roles in Academic Services and the
International Office.
Hugh Stubbs, who was a member of Council between 2001 and 2010, was a longstanding and very active alumnus of the University, having graduated with a BA in
History in 1968.
Philip Webb passed away after a short battle with cancer. Phil worked for the
University for 44 years, only retiring from the University a short while ago after many
years working in Print & Copy Services.
The Vice-Chancellor offered his sincere condolences, on behalf of Council, to family
and friends.
• Appointment of Associate Deans (Research) - Four appointments to Associate Dean
(Research) positions had recently been made as follows:
College of Life and Environmental Sciences (CLES)
Professor Mike Boots, from 1 January 2014 for three years.
College
of
Social
Sciences
and
International
Studies
(SSIS)
Professor Anne Barlow, interim appointment for one year until 31 December 2014.
Business School
Professor Richard Owen, from 1 Feb 2014 for three years.
College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences
Professor Aleksander Pavic, from 20 January 2014 to 31 July 2016.
(CEMPS)
• Cornwall Council - The new Chief Executive of Cornwall Council, Andrew Kerr,
formally took up his post last month. The Vice-Chancellor would be meeting with Mr
Kerr, along with Professor Mark Goodwin, on 17 March to discuss the strategic
partnership between Cornwall Council and the University going forward.
(ii)
League Table Update - Exeter had been ranked in the Top 100 ‘most international’
universities in the world by Times Higher Education (THE), ranking no.71. The
methodology examined a university’s international student numbers, its percentage of
international staff and the proportion of its research papers published with a co-author
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from at least one other country. The list was drawn from the world’s top 400 of the THE
World University Rankings 2013-2014.
(iii) Students’ Guild Sabbatical Elections 2014/15 – elected candidates in the 2014/15
Students’ Guild Sabbatical Elections were:
Guild President:
Vice-President Education:
Vice-President Welfare & Diversity:
Vice-President Activities:
Athletic Union President:
International Officer:
Postgraduate Officer:
Rachel Gillies (BA Theology and Religion)
Ben Street (BA Ancient History)
Kate Hawkins (BSc Biology)
Matthew Bate (BSc Biosciences)
Andy Higham (BSc Exercise and Sport)
Titus Ching (BA Business & Management)
Chris Capper (BA Politics)
The Vice-Chancellor offered his congratulations to the 2014/15 officers and looked
forward to welcoming them into their roles in July 2014. The turnout of the elections was
the second highest total ever, at 36.14%, which was in the upper quartile of Russell
Group metrics. 6,078 students voted and cast a total of 30,522 ballots, which was a new
record for Exeter.
(iv) Science and Engineering Research Support Facility (SERSF) Building - The Department
for Communities and Local Government had now signed a contract with the University to
award European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding of £3.9m, towards total
project costs of £5.2m for the Science and Engineering Research Support Facility
(SERSF Building) on the Penryn Campus. The facility would provide much-needed
laboratory and office capacity at the campus, as well as a home for Business School
activity in Cornwall. The facility would be occupied by June 2015, and it was hoped that a
turf-cutting ceremony would take place in April.
It was confirmed that Chris Pomfret, Chair of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local
Enterprise Partnership (LEP), had not read any of the papers nor had any involvement in
the University’s submission due to his role as a member of the University’s Council.
(v) UK Research Partnership Innovation Fund Expression of Interest (COMMERCIAL IN
CONFIDENCE)
(vi) BIS Letter to HEFCE and the Student Number Control - The delayed letter from the
Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to the Higher Education Funding
Council for England (HEFCE) outlining Higher Education Funding for 2014/15 was
published on 10 February 2014. The Secretary of State announced that for 2014/15,
there would be continued protection of the ring-fenced settlement for science and
research, meaning that recurrent funding was maintained at £1,573 million, the same
cash levels as 2013-14. There would, however, be a net reduction in recurrent teaching
grant of £45 million. However, this reduction factored in additions into the teaching grant
of funding for access and student success, and increased funding for additional student
numbers, and therefore the reduction to recurrent teaching grant would be larger than
£45 million. The savings in recurrent teaching grant were to protect, as far as possible,
high cost subjects (including STEM), widening participation and small and specialist
institutions. The grant letter confirmed the Government’s provision of a maximum of
30,000 additional student places in academic year 2014-15 for HEFCE-funded
institutions and that the student number control (SNC) would be removed entirely from
2015-16. The Government had asked HEFCE to ensure that higher education
institutions maintained the quality of the student experience in these circumstances.
For 2015–16, it had been confirmed that the RPIF would be extended, but that there
would be a more substantial reduction of £246 million in recurrent teaching grant.
HEFCE had been asked to work with BIS, Treasury ministers, the research councils and
vice-chancellors to build on the Diamond and Wakeham reviews to drive further and
faster improvements in efficiency within the sector, and to work with Professor Sir Ian
Diamond to carry out a further review of efficiency in higher education institutions. There
would be an interim report in summer 2014 and final conclusions in February 2015. In
addition, universities had been asked once again to ‘hold down increases in pay
generally’, including senior pay.
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In a further communication from HEFCE, the University had also received details of its
provisional Student Number Control (SNC) allocation for 2014/15, which had increased
by 93 from 2013/14. This increased the flexibility the University had this year by 259
students to 994. With an SNC of 994, the permitted number of non-ABB students was
far greater than Exeter was going to need but it provided the University with maximum
flexibility.
The details of the University’s final SNC allocation was expected on 14 March, and the
institutional grant letter for 2014/15 on 24 March.
(vii) UCAS National Application Rates Data (January Deadline) - UCAS was reporting a 4%
increase in the number of applicants (580,000) to Higher Education (HE) courses
compared to the same point last year. This was in spite of the continuing fall in the
population of 18 year olds, which this year was around 1%. Taking account of population
changes, application rates for 18 year olds across the whole of the UK were at, or near,
their highest levels. An unprecedented 35% of 18 year olds from England had submitted
a UCAS application this year, and most encouragingly, young people from the most
disadvantaged areas in England were now almost twice as likely to apply as they were in
2004. Continuing an existing trend, over 87,000 more women than men had applied, a
difference that had increased by 7,000 this year. Young women were now a third more
likely to apply to higher education than young men.
(b) In addition to the written report, the Vice-Chancellor drew attention to the following:
(i)
Science Park Update – It had been agreed that Professor Nick Talbot would be the
University’s lead for the Science Park Development.
The loan from the Heart of the South West LEP for the construction of the Science Park
had been agreed, with the University and Devon County Council (DCC) acting as
guarantors. The Science Park was working hard to ensure that any risks to the
guarantors was minimised.
Work had now started on the construction of the Science Park Centre with completion
due in June 2015. The University’s company, Peninsula Innovations Ltd (PIL), had been
offered a 15 year lease from the science park company to run the Science Park Centre.
Favourable terms were being negotiated including a 4 year rental holiday to enable the
Centre to become operational at low risk to PIL.
The University had decided to postpone the idea of the swap of the Innovation Centre on
campus for the Science Park Centre until the second phase of the Science Park centre
was available. This was because the total available capacity of innovation space in
Exeter would have reduced significantly in the early years and it would have been hard
for PIL to recoup the drop in income in the short term. However, attractive terms had
been negotiated with the Homes and Communities Agency to release the University from
its obligations to run the Innovation Centre on campus and replace it with a Science Park
activity so that when the time came to move the activity to the Science Park the campus
Innovation Centre could revert to academic use at low cost (c. £2.5m) for c.4000m2.
(ii)
Home Office Licence Holder – Professor Nick Talbot had become the University’s Home
Office Licence Holder for the University.
Professor Talbot would be the Establishment Licence Holder and would be responsible
for ensuring that the University complied with the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act
1986.
This was a statutory role; the Home Office had been informed and Council was asked to
NOTE this formally.
(iii) Appointment of the Dean of the College of Social Sciences and International Studies
(SSIS) – Professor Robert Van de Noort, Dean of SSIS, was leaving the University at the
end of this academic year to take up the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic
Planning and Resource at the University of Reading.
Following a competitive process it was RECOMMENDED to Council that Professor
Debra Myhill should be appointed Dean of the College of Social Sciences and
International Studies for a period of five years in the first instance from 1 August 2014.
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Members APPROVED the appointment and offered their congratulations to Professor
Myhill.
(iv) Medical Imaging – Professor Janice Kay and colleagues in the University of Exeter
Medical School had successfully bid for £300k from Health Education South West
towards upgrading the University’s medical imaging equipment, as Diagnostic
Radiography moved from CEMPS to the Medical School. The Vice-Chancellor thanked
Professor Kay for leading this process.
(v) Office of Fair Trading (OFT) – The Vice-Chancellor invited Michele Shoebridge, Director
of Academic Services, to provide Council with an update on the OFT investigation in to
whether universities in England were able to compete effectively and respond to
students’ expectations.
The OFT was currently still in the process of reviewing the submissions from its call for
information about how universities compete, the impact regulation had on universities
and the student experience of the current system. It was anticipated, once it had
published a summary of its findings next month, that the OFT would undertake a market
study of English higher education by the new Competition and Markets Authority.
In a related development, the OFT had written to universities last week asking that rules
that stopped students from graduating if they had non-tuition fee debts be reviewed. The
OFT were concerned that the use of academic sanctions in such instances could breach
consumer protection law. They now expected universities to refrain from using these
terms and had recommended that university rules and regulations were reviewed and
amendments made where necessary. Exeter did have this sanction written in to its
policies currently but it had only ever been applied in exceptional circumstances.
(vi) Science Budget – As noted in the Vice-Chancellor’s written report the letter from the
Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) to the Higher Education Funding
Council for England (HEFCE) outlining Higher Education Funding for 2014/15 was
published on 10 February 2014. Following successful lobbying in the sector the outcome
of this was that the science budget had been protected in cash terms. This was a clear
indication that Universities were seen as the engine of growth for the economy.
The pressure on the Science Budget was likely to continue in the future however and the
University had to anticipate the trends and be competitive. The process of concentration
and improving quality had to remain the focus and this would be discussed through the
Research and Knowledge Transfer Management Board and the Research Monitoring
meetings later in the year.
(vii) UCAS End of Cycle report – the Vice-Chancellor shared with members the UCAS end of
cycle
report
by
means
of
a
presentation
available
at:
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/about/organisation/council/reference/agendas/27february2014/.
In discussion with members the following key points were noted:
• Information about what a BTEC is could be found on Edexcel’s website at:
http://www.edexcel.com/btec/Pages/default.aspx
• The data around the demographic downturn would be built in to the University’s
planning assumptions and considered in terms of the implications for teaching space
and other capital developments. However, the 18 year old cohort would rise again
from 2019 so it was not a permanent trend and the University also needed to plan for
this.
• The issues around the growth of BTEC qualifications did not affect all Russell Group
institutions in the same way. There would be reform to the assessment of BTECs by
2017 and the UCAS tariff review would significantly alter the performance of some
qualifications.
14.6
Second Financial Forecast 2013/14 (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
14.7
Admissions (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
14.8
Widening Participation (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
Page 5 of 6
14.9
Living Systems Project Update (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
14.10
Project Proposal: High Performance
CONFIDENCE)
Professor Richard Everson in attendance
14.11
Finance: Endowment Investments: Annual Report
Computing
Environment
(COMMERCIAL
IN
Council RECEIVED the University’s endowment investments annual report (CNL/14/8).
This was the first annual report on the University's endowment investments and various
developments in the management and governance of them. The report provided Council with an
overview of the University’s investments, how they were governed and managed and how the
University’s investment managers had performed. The report was for information and no action
was required.
The University had set JP Morgan a target total return of RPI+4% on the University’s investments.
This was the most important comparison. However JP Morgan’s performance was also
considered against the market in general. This showed the extent to which JP Morgan’s
performance reflected the market in general or was better or worse than the market. The
University’s portfolio had outperformed the return benchmark and was fractionally ahead of the
market over the last 12 months. However it was below the market since the inception of the fund.
It was noted that Finance Services were developing an operating manual to codify or address a
number of policy and operating issues and that the manual would come to Council for approval
under Part II once it has gone through the Endowment and Investment Group and Dual
Assurance.
14.12
University of Exeter Medical School St Luke’s South Cloisters Project (COMMERCIAL IN
CONFIDENCE)
(reference minute 13.121)
14.13
Research Excellence Framework (REF) Submission (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
14.14
University Terms and Academic Calendar 2014-15
Council CONSIDERED a draft of the University Terms and Calendar for 2014/15 (CNL/14/11). It
was noted that the final version for approval would be considered by Council at its April meeting.
14.15
Infrastructure
(a) Council RECEIVED a summary report on infrastructure projects (CNL/14/12).
(b) Council RECEIVED the minutes of the Infrastructure Strategy Group meeting held on 17
December 2013 (CNL/14/13).
14.16
FXU Constitution
(reference minute 13.137)
Council APPROVED the revised FXU Constitution (CNL/14/14).
14.17
Affixing of the Seal of the University
Council AUTHORISED the fixing of the University seal to the documents listed in CNL/14/15.
14.18
Chair’s Closing Remarks (COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE)
JW/JAL
27 February 2014
M:\Exec Officer\COUNCIL\2013-14\February 2014\Council Minutes 27 February 2014.doc
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