COUNCIL
MEETING HELD ON 31ST JANUARY 2011
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Key:  In Attendance A Apologies P Part Attendance
In Attendance
Mr Frank Toop
Professor Julius
Weinberg
Ms Henrietta Royle
Mr Richard Farmer
Miss Xan Kite
Mr Jeremy Payne
Professor Ken
Grattan
Meeting 6
11.07.10
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P
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Meeting 5
16.05.11
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Meeting 4
28.03.11
Mr Roger Bright
Dame Lynne Brindley
Prof Sir Drummond Bone
Ms Cherry Freeman
Mr Andrew Halper
Dr John Low
Mr Kieran Murphy
Ms Carolyn Regan
Mr Mark Robson
Professor Hein Schreuder
Mr David Turner
Professor Dinos Arcoumanis
Professor David Bolton
Mr N Raj Cumlajee
Mr Richard Gillingwater
Mr Philip Harding
Mr Amish Patel
Professor Christina Slade
Meeting 3
31.01.11
Mr Apurv Bagri (Chair)
Mr Rob Woodward (Deputy Chair)
Prof Paul Curran (VC)
Meeting 2
16.11.10
Staff & Student
Members
Independent Members
ExOfficio
Members
Meeting 1
01.10.10
APPROVED MINUTES
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N/M Not a Member
* Conflict of Interest
Reason and Meeting Section
University Secretary
DVC (for items 1 to 6)
Chief Operating Officer
HR Director
Council Secretariat
Director of Development and Alumni Relations (for item 11)
Conjoint Dean of the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
and the School of Informatics, Observer
MINUTES SECTION A – OPEN FOR PUBLICATION
Part One – Preliminary Items
1.
Membership
Council agreed to appoint the following new Members of Council, each for a period
of three years starting on 31st January 2011:
(i) Professor Dinos Arcoumanis;
(ii) Dame Lynne Brindley (also to become a Member of Audit and Risk Committee);
and
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(iii) Dr John Low (also to become a Member of Corporate Governance and Nominations Committee).
Council also agreed that Professor Julius Weinberg would now not become a
member of Council.
Professor Dinos Arcoumanis, Dame Lynne Brindley and Dr John Low joined the meeting
at this point.
2.
Highlighted Items
Council agreed the starred items for discussion.
3.
Minutes
The minutes of the meeting held on 16th November 2010 were approved.
4.
Matters Arising
The explanation of the Resource Allocation Model and the progress report on the
Review of Undergraduate Education will be provided to Council on 28th March
2011.
5.
Conflicts of Interest
None.
6.
Items Specially Brought Forward by the Chair
The Chair thanked Professor Julius Weinberg for his contribution to the University,
in particular the extraordinary service given during his year as Acting ViceChancellor. The Chair made a presentation to Professor Weinberg to mark the
occasion and Professor Weinberg made a speech expressing his thanks and high
regard for the University and Council.
Professor Julius Weinberg left the meeting at this point.
Part Two – Major Items for Discussion or Decision
7.
2
Vice-Chancellor’s Report
The following issues were noted in considering the Vice-Chancellor’s report:
(i)
The University will submit an Access Agreement for undergraduate students
(including course fees and bursary or other financial support) to the Office
for Fair Access (OFFA) in March 2011. OFFA will notify the University of its
approval or otherwise by the end of June and in the meantime the
University must decide whether to include its course fees in the
undergraduate prospectus.
(ii)
The draft Higher Education White Paper is due to be published in the third
week of March.
(iii)
Council Members received the January 2011 Degree Congregation
brochure and were encouraged to attend graduation ceremonies wherever
possible.
(iv)
Staff received the 0.4% pay increase in January 2011. The members of the
Executive Committee had agreed to forgo this increase.
(v)
The Emergency Planning Group, chaired by Professor Ken Grattan, will
manage actions required in the event of any industrial action.
(vi)
The scheduled January meeting of Court has been postponed to 19th May
2011 and will take the form of an annual review of academic and financial
performance.
(vii)
The Cass full time MBA has moved up nine places to 32nd in the world in
the Financial Times Full Time Global MBA 2011 ranking. Council
congratulated Cass Business School on this achievement.
Cherry Freeman joined the meeting at this point.
(viii)
The Vice-Chancellor reported that he was part-way through restructuring
the University Executive Team (UET) focusing on academic leadership.
Council approved the appointment of Professor Richard Verrall as ProVice-Chancellor, noting that Roger Bright had represented Council on the
appointment panel and that Remuneration Committee had approved the
terms and conditions. Council noted that Professor David Bolton had
become Deputy Vice-Chancellor, a post that added internal and external
responsibilities to those associated with his existing post as Deputy ViceChancellor (Education). (Secretary’s Note: Professor Bolton would only fill
the role of Acting Vice-Chancellor, in the case of a Vice-Chancellor vacancy
or extended sick leave, if Council subsequently approved this). Council also
noted that the post of Chief Operating Officer was to become redundant
and its responsibilities redistributed amongst UET. The Vice-Chancellor
and Council expressed appreciation for the work undertaken by the COO,
Henrietta Royle, who would leave the University at the end of February.
Mark Robson Joined the meeting at this point.
8.
Vision and Associated Strategy Development
Council agreed the thrust of the draft Vision Statement prepared by the ViceChancellor and made comments for him to consider for incorporation prior to the
commencement of a cross-University consultation exercise on Friday 4th February.
Council members would also have the opportunity to comment through a
consultation web-site. It recognised that the draft marked the start of a process and
the strategic section was merely indicative at this stage. A final draft following
completion of the consultation exercise would be presented to Council for approval
on 28th March 2011. [Action: VC]
The draft Vision presented a need for a step change in performance and drew on
three key points raised by staff: (i) the University has many strengths of which
colleagues are justifiably proud; (ii) City needs to pull in the same direction and (iii)
colleagues want to change and to compete on the basis of quality. The proposed
Vision positioned City within a global setting, aiming to be in the top 2%
(180th/200th) in the world.
Work on the Strategy would begin after 28th March. The University Secretary
would circulate a reminder of the details of the two long meetings to be held on 11th
July and 12th October.
[Action: US]
This Item is continued in Section B of the Minutes, Closed Business.
9.
9.1
Finance
Financial Modelling for 2012/13 – 2014/15
Council considered updated modelling of the effect of changes in Government
funding and student finance on City. The updates included recently announced
information on the levels of Government funding for 2012/13, the latest information
on NHS commissioning and the financial scholarship programme that institutions
charging above £6k will be required to participate in. The Government is
considering introducing a requirement to provide two years’ free tuition, one of
which would be paid for by the institution, for students who have been receiving
free school meals who are estimated to total around 14% of undergraduate
students at City (City = 11th highest in England). The modelling did not include the
planned Zero Based Review savings.
Further clarity on the financial implications of charging a fee greater than £6,000 is
expected in February and the Higher Education White Paper is due to be published
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in March 2011, though Council noted that the sector should not expect any clarity
on student demand for several years. Council noted that the UK was likely to see
sharp downturn in EU students following the introduction of the new fee
arrangements.
Council agreed that it will consider the next update on the Modelling at its meeting
in May 2011. [Action: CFO]
This Item is continued in Section B of the Minutes, Closed Business.
9.2
Zero-Based Review
The Zero-Based Review of Professional Services had resulted in recommendations
totalling an expenditure saving of £3.77m. UET had agreed to implement the
recommendations in two phases, the first being savings that can be made
immediately and the second to follow production of the Strategic Plan. The
Steering Group overseeing the implementation of Review recommendations will
report regularly to ExCo.
Council noted that the level of savings was less than anticipated in the Financial
Strategy (£6.5m) and at the lower end of the benchmarking of professional services
costs, which suggested that City’s costs were £4m-£8m higher than comparator
institutions. It noted that the total savings would be enhanced by the additional 15%
reduction in all professional service budgets outlined in the Financial Strategy.
The CFO would circulate a more detailed breakdown of the Zero Based Review
savings to Council Members after the meeting. [Action: CFO]
This Item is continued in Section B of the Minutes, Closed Business.
9.3
Mid-Year Forecast 2010/11
The mid-year forecast reported a deficit of £3.6m after restructuring costs of £2m.
Turnover was forecast to reach £178m. The shortfall against budget at the
operating level was £2.6m, offset by a £1m saving on restructuring. UET had
committed to a programme of measures to remedy the situation and remained
intent upon delivering the budget for 2010-11.
The actions included the submission of an appeal to HEFCE for mitigation against
grant holdback of £312k and potential loss of £761k of funding secured
competitively from the University Modernisation Fund, arising from a
reclassification of a cohort of students which would have a one-year effect. An
outcome was expected in mid-February.
Further actions included the extension of recruitment controls in place for
professional staff to apply to all academic staff posts for as long as is necessary.
The new draft INTO business plan to be considered at its Board meeting in
February would be considered by Council on 28th March 2011.
[Action: DVC]
The future of the Olive Tree programme would be reported to Council later in the
academic year.
[Action: VC]
Council approved the Mid-Year Forecast 2010/11.
9.4
4
Draft Financial Plan 2011/12
Council received an early draft of the Financial Plan for 2011/12 ahead of the full
Outline Budget which would be presented on 28th March. The assumptions
employed suggested a surplus of £1.9m which was £3.7m adrift of the 3% target
for 2011-12.
Council noted that the potential option to reduce research investment included in
the list of options would be removed in the light of the Vision.
Part Three – Other Matters for Discussion or Decision
10.
Senate Ordinance
Council agreed to delegate authority to CGNC to make a small change to the
Senate Ordinance regarding student membership of Senate (Senate Meeting 15th
December 2010 Minute 4(ii) refers).
Mr Jeremy Payne joined the meeting at this point.
11.
City Leadership Circle
Council approved a proposal to introduce a formal donor recognition group to be
known as the City Leadership Circle, subject to a review to increase the targets for
the scheme, to establish a ladder of recognition and to produce clear written
information on tax benefits. All Council Members would be asked to take part and
the University Secretary would report back on numbers of participating Council
Members in six months’ time. [Action: US]
The President of the Students’ Union reported that the Students’ Union was keen to
assist with fundraising, in particular with donor relations, for example taking donors
to student games and similar events.
Mr Jeremy Payne left the meeting at this point.
The following items were not starred for discussion and therefore not discussed and taken
as read.
Part Four – Items for Information
12.
Minutes for Note
Senate Minutes of 15th December 2010
13.
Principles Supporting the Relationship between Institutional Governing
Bodies and HEFCE
A consultation.
14.
Other Business
Council noted that its visit to the Cass Business School would be held on the 1st
February and that the numbers of Council Members attending were low.
The Chair, Apurv Bagri, was hosting a dinner for Council Members and their
partners on 5th July 2011 at his home.
15.
Date of Next Meeting
28th March 2011.
Part Five – Short Meeting of Independent Members
24.
Short Meeting of Independent Members
There was a short meeting of the Independent Members. This meeting was not
minuted.
Apurv Bagri
Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council
February 2011
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