ACTIONS ARISING FROM THE ALUMNI CONSULTATIVE GROUP (ACG)
MEETING ON SATURDAY 6 DECEMBER 2014
Present: Dr David Moffat (Chair), Mr Neil Archibald, Ms Sue Bevan, Ms Claire Boothman, Mrs Lesley
Braiden, Dr Malcolm Grady, Mr Antony Jones, Mr Ally Robson, Ms Pam Stephens, Dr Carolyn
Teasdale, Ms Jasmine Walker, and Mr Robert Wilkinson.
In attendance: Miss Tania Angelopoulos, Dr John Hogan, Ms Abi Kelly, Mr Marc Lintern (for item 2a) and
Miss Ruth Draper (Acting Secretary)
Apologies: Professor Brink, Professor Richard Davies, Mrs Maureen Denham, and Mr Patrick Lavery.
ITEM
1. Minutes of last meeting
ACTIONS/DECISIONS
The minutes of the meeting held on 10 September 2014 were approved.
2. Matters arising from the
2(a) Mr Marc Lintern, Director of the Careers Service
minutes
Mr Marc Lintern gave an overview of the Careers Service and its work
with the Alumni.
[A copy of his presentation is filed with the notes of the meeting]
Noted:
 Many students go to university knowing this will enhance their
career prospects but they aren’t sure what job they will do.
 The Careers Service seeks to engage with students before they
graduate to help them to enhance their career prospects through
a variety of activities.
 Part of this work is working with PARTNERS students from nontraditional backgrounds, to raise their career expectations.
 The Service continues to support graduates officially for three
years after they leave, but in reality they will help anyone at any
point.
 They also run “the Pride of Newcastle University Awards” that
recognise students’ contributions to various aspects of university
life, including the three societal challenge themes.
2(b) Communications
Ms Abi Kelly, Director Corporate Affairs, gave a presentation on the
forms of communications that we currently have with our students and
alumni.
Noted:
 That while there are a wide variety of forms of communication
with our graduates and current student body, it is difficult to
evaluate how effective many of these actually are, and whether or
not we are delivering what our students and alumni want from us.
 With limited resources available, we need to know what works
and what can be replaced or discarded.
 How do we avoid the break in engagement with the University at
the point of graduation? How can we encourage a continuum of
engagement from student to graduate/alumni?
 Some students stay in contact with their peers if there has been a
strong bond through a society or a particular subject. (eg the
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
Agric Society, and the Medical Society). However, even these
societies are finding it difficult to persuade younger alumni to join.
There needs to be a reason for current students to want to
engage with the Alumni Association in the future. It is easier to
maintain contact with someone, than to lose it and then try to reestablish it later.
Agreed:
(i)
That part of the next meeting will be devoted to a workshop that will
focus on developing some ideas on the Alumni Association’s ‘value
proposition’ so we can understand and hone our offer to graduates.
(ii)
That in order to facilitate this, the meeting will be extended from
11.00-3.00pm, with a break for lunch at 1.00pm.
(iii)
Prior to this meeting it would be useful to gather some
information/evidence on the effectiveness of the current forms of
communications to see what level of engagement there is with what
we are doing already?
(iv)
Some sub-groups were suggested for this. If some of these could
be convened in the New Year, their views, desires, and thoughts on
what they would like or need from the University after they graduate,
could be fed into the workshop in March.
The suggested sub groups include:
 Students who are about to graduate in summer 2016
 The current Sabbatical Officers
 Graduates in the North- East from 10 years ago
 Graduates from a sports or another society related
background
 Graduates from a subject related background
Actions: Abi Kelly and Tania Angelopoulos.
2 (c) Constitution and Terms of Reference
5. ACG Action Plan
The Committee received the latest version of the Constitution and Terms
of Reference,that have been revised to reflect the creation of the
Corporate Affairs Directorate. These will be kept under review.
The Chair introduced a draft action plan for the work of the Committee.
Noted:
 At the first meeting of the newly elected Alumni Consultative Group
(ACG) on 10th September 2014 it was agreed that the priority task for
the coming year was to develop a formal action plan for the Group.
 It is emphasised that this is a first draft and very much a work in
progress which will be developed during the course of the coming year.
This does not, however, preclude the continuation of ongoing ACG
activities and initiation of new activities which are in conformity with the
draft.
Agreed:
(i)That the following members volunteered as sub group leaders in order to
progress the actions:
1. Increase Alumni Engagement : Jasmine Walker
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2. Assist the University to provide a supportive environment to its Alumni:
Carolyn Teasdale and Pam Stephens.
3. Increase ACG support to University Alumni-related activities with an
initial focus on the Convocation weekend: Antony Jones and Ally
Robson.
4.
Support the University’s Civic Engagement agenda: Malcolm Grady.
5. Monitoring and Evaluation: this will be put on hold pending a
forthcoming meeting of the Russell Group addressing the whole issue
of M and E which will be attended by Tania. A report will come back to
next ACG meeting.
(ii) That Professor Richard Davies is asked to give the committee a
presentation on the Civic University at the March meeting. This will help to set
the scene for Action 4 in the Action Plan. (RJD)
6. University Business
The Registrar gave an update on University business.
Noted:
 Student recruitment has gone well again this year. We continue to grow
steadily whilst continuing to attract well qualified applicants. We now
have around 23,300 students, 22,000 of whom are on this site, which is
the highest number we have ever had.
 We are about to enter into our third major international partnership, with
Xiamen University in China. This promises to be the biggest of all three.
 On the 18th December, the results of the REF exercise will be
published. This is an important exercise that is a measure of our
research performance by our research peers.
 In his Autumn statement the Chancellor, George Osborne, awarded
£20m to Newcastle University to establish a National Centre for Ageing
Science and Innovation at our Campus for Ageing and Vitality.
7. Students’ Union Impact
Report
The Student’s Union President introduced their annual Impact Report
containing highlights of last year’s activities, including the fact that our students
have contributed over 46,000 hours of volunteering to the local community.
8. Any other business
It was reported that Tania Angelopoulos has been appointed to a new role in
Singapore from March 2015. Members congratulated her and wished her well
in her new post, thanking her for all of her work and support to the Group.
It is intended to recruit a replacement as quickly as possible. Dr Moffatt, has
agreed to work with Corporate Affairs in the recruitment process.
9. Date of the next
meeting
The next meeting will take place on Saturday 7th March 2015.
The meeting will start at 11.00am and end at 3.00pm, with a break for lunch at
1.00pm.
Ruth Draper
Head of the Executive Office
Acting Secretary
22 December 2014
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