11/809
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE CARDIFF UNIVERSITY POLICY AND
RESOURCES COMMITTEE HELD ON TUESDAY 27 MARCH 2012, IN THE
COUNCIL CHAMBER, MAIN BUILDING AT 5.00 PM
Present:
Mr J Jeans (Chair), Vice-Chancellor, Mr M Coates-Walker, Mrs S
Gwyer-Roberts and Mr R N Roberts.
In attendance: Mr S Allin, Mr J Dunlop, Mr R Eales, Mrs S Orton and Dr CB Turner.
Apologies for absence were received from Mr G Clarke, Rev. G Powell, Ms S Reid,
Professor E Treasure and Professor T Wess.
27
PRELIMINARIES
NOTED that the Chair had taken executive action to appoint Mr RN
Roberts to membership of the Committee [vice Sir Jon Shortridge].
28
MINUTES
NOTED that the Minutes of the meeting of Policy and Resources
Committee held on 29 November 2011 (11/523) were signed as a
correct record by the Chair.
29
MATTERS ARISING
29.1
Pensions [vide Minute 20.13]
NOTED
29.2
.1
that officers had been in touch with the LG Pension Fund
actuary to obtain more information on the valuation of the Fund,
its assets and liabilities;
.2
that a letter would be sent to the Pension Fund trustees,
suggesting possible courses of action, following an analysis of
the information received from the actuary.
Value for Money and Risk Management Annual Report [vide Minute 21.2]
NOTED
29.3
.1
the view that it would be helpful to assess the risks on the
register both before and after mitigating factors are applied as
this would help to better identify the impact of mitigation;
.2
that a further break-down of where responsibility lay for risk
ownership/ management would be helpful.
Students’ Union Building [vide Minute 24.1]
NOTED that work on identifying long-term maintenance and possible
improvements to the building had begun, including a survey of trees in
the vicinity of the building.
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30
FINANCIAL MATTERS
30.1
HEFCW Remit Letter
Received and considered paper 11/742, ‘Higher Education Funding
Council for Wales Remit Letter 2012-13’.
NOTED
.1
that the HEFCW Remit letter for 2012-13 provided a reasonable
steer as to the direction of Assembly priorities and did not
contain anything that would change significantly the direction of
policy or strategy at the University;
.2
that there was no mention of the regional agenda;
.3
that the commitment to HE reconfiguration was re-stated;
.4
that there would be a pre-legislative consultation exercise on a
proposed Further and Higher Education (Wales) Bill that would
include consultation on governance matters, including the
McCormick Review;
.5
that the Minister would be proposing the introduction of a code
of governance for HEI governing bodies and that HEFCW had
been directed to develop a more “direct line of sight” into
institutional governance;
.6
that there were no amendments to the full-time fee planning
guidance and the remit letter reiterated that no full-time
undergraduate student ordinarily resident in Wales would pay
higher fees during the lifetime of the Assembly;
.7
that there had been a delay in issuing guidance in respect of
part-time students and that the University’s Fee Plan Group
would take forward the necessary work as appropriate;
.8
that the cap on full-time undergraduate student numbers
remained, with the possibility that any over-recruitment might
result in grant reduction in order to cover the increased student
support costs;
.9
that HEFCW would be monitoring bursary levels to Welshdomiciled students compared to others and that the University
was also benchmarking against main comparators;
.10
that the Remit Letters also covered evidence of embedding
employability skills into the curriculum and actions to improve
research quality and income, including assisting with the
implementation of the new Science Policy for Wales and the
selective allocation of QR funding to promote collaboration both
within and outside Wales;
.11
that the Recurrent Grant [Public Investment Fund] Letter should
be published by the end of March 2012.
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30.2
Finance Group and Finance Report
Received and considered papers 11/53B, Finance Group Minutes, 12
March 2012 and 11/47BR, ‘Finance Report – January 2012’.
NOTED
.1
that, in future the Finance Group would consider the Finance
Report in detail and Policy and Resources Committee would
consider the headline outcomes, approving items within its remit
and making recommendations to Council on other matters
requiring approval;
.2
that consideration of the University’s finances was a continuous,
iterative process;
.3
that there were underlying assumptions about School balances
and financial estimates and that there sometimes appeared to
be differences between the forecasts prepared by central
administration and those produced by Schools;
.4
that loss of funding from the HEFCW teaching grant could
impact on both the end of year surplus and cash balances
though the position was likely to improve by 2015 when most
home/EC undergraduates would be paying £9K fees;
.5
that cash balances would need to be used to fund capital
expenditure and that careful stewardship of the University’s
finances over the last several years had produced a relatively
healthy position with regard to cash balances and this will be
helpful in sustaining the University through the financial
challenges of the next 2-3 years;
.6
that the forecast surplus for 2011-12 remained at M£5.4.
RESOLVED
31
.7
that the Secretary to Policy and Resources Committee should
clarify the relative responsibilities of the Finance Group and the
Policy and Resources Committee as part of the interim review of
committees at the end of year;
.8
that in future a short covering paper to the Finance Group
Minutes and Report would be helpful.
IMPLEMENTING AND RESOURCING THE RESEARCH STRATEGY
Received and considered paper 11/151, ‘Implementing and
Resourcing the Research Strategy’.
NOTED
31.1
that University Management Board had considered a range of
proposals at its meeting on 21 March 2012 and that four proposals had
been brought forward for approval by Policy and Resources
Committee;
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31.2
that the four proposals, together worth a maximum investment of
M£9.5, would place a severe strain on the Strategic Investment Fund,
resulting in a projected deficit of c.M£30 by 2015/16;
31.3
Serious Brain Power initiative
.1
that the funding for this initiative would affect the baseline staff
costs for the University and thus be a recurrent, rather than a
one-off cost;
.2
that work has been done to ensure that the additional staff costs
can be absorbed by the Schools when the initiative funding
comes to an end;
.3
that candidates would be expected to bring in research income
and that previous experience of a similar exercise indicated that
cost recovery would occur within 3-5 years of appointment;
.4
that most staff recruited through the initiative would be expected
to teach as well as conduct research, though there may be
some research-only contracts;
.5
that the proposal, following the interview process, was to recruit
up to 27 staff in two categories [professors and fellows] but at
different grades and salary costs;
.6
that there would be central and School support for each post,
moving to School funded in due course;
.7
that it was important that, alongside this initiative, the University
took steps to deal with under performance of staff and identify
and tackle pockets of poor teaching in Schools;
.8
that the PCUTL programme was being extended to include
more long-serving members of staff with a view to helping staff
to improve teaching performance;
.9
that addressing poor teaching performance was a concern for
students, alongside the issue of relevant and timely feedback;
.10
that the University’s Assessment Matters project was seeking to
address the quality and timeliness of feedback and improving
the consistency of assessment methods and criteria.
RESOLVED
.11
that provision of up to an additional M£2 be approved for the
Serious Brain Power initiative, subject to the following caveats:

improving performance management across the University;

that the initiative should be self-sustaining over a reasonable
period of time;

a recognition that the approval would add a fixed-cost to the
University’s finances;
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31.4

that there was a need to move quickly to secure recruitment
and that a plan to deal with a failure to recruit should be
developed;

a commitment to enhance teaching as well as research
standards across the University.
Equipment for University Research Institutes
NOTED
.1
that a change in external funding had resulted in a shortfall of
funding for equipment for the two Research Institutes to be
housed in the Hadyn Ellis Building;
.2
that the request was for a one-off investment and that, should
additional funding be secured, the need to call on the funding
from SIF would reduce or disappear.
RESOLVED
.3
to approve University support of up to M£2 to fund equipment
for the University Research Institutes in the Hadyn Ellis Building,
M£1 from the Strategic Investment Fund and M£1 from
endowment funds;
.4
that a further update on this investment should be brought to the
Committee at a later date.
FURTHER RESOLVED
31.5
that a decision on the remaining two proposals for funding for the
Large Research Equipment Fund and the President’s Research
Scholarships Scheme be postponed until the next meeting of the
Committee;
31.6
that a revised paper should be presented to the May meeting, to
include assumptions for expenditure and income, and the impact on
the Strategic Investment Fund over the period up to 2015/6.
32
INFRASTRUCTURE
32.1
Projects and Campus Developments Update
Received and noted paper 11/737, ‘Projects and Campus
Developments Update’.
NOTED the excellent progress being made on the Hadyn Ellis Building.
32.2
IT Infrastructure
Received and noted paper 11/744, ‘IT Infrastructure’.
NOTED the University’s investment in ARCCA, including funding to
replace the Merlin supercomputer which was now at an advanced stage
in the procurement process.
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33
ALCOHOL AND DRUG MISUSE POLICY
Received and considered paper 11/736, ‘Alcohol and Drug Misuse
Policy’.
NOTED
33.1
that it was important to find an appropriate balance between actively
supporting staff with an alcohol or drugs misuse problem and the need to
deal with performance issues;
33.2
that it was important that a Policy be approved and implemented prior to
the University’s submission for the Corporate Health Standard
assessment;
33.3
that there had been extensive consultation with trade unions and
management prior to being published for consultation to the wider
University community;
33.4
that, inter alia, the following issues were discussed:

the issue of including prescription drug abuse in the Policy’s definition
of drug misuse;

that paragraphs 5.6 and 11.1 should be amended to read ‘may’
rather than ‘will’;

that there was concern among staff on how to deal with line
manager/senior staff members who might have an alcohol or drug
dependency problem;

potential issues arising from the confidentiality clause in the Policy
and circumstances, for example health and safety reasons, under
which it might prove necessary to inform colleagues of a potential
problem;

that independent medical advice would be sought before a decision
in respect of paragraph 11.1 would be made;

that, alongside the Policy, specific guidance on the occasions when
alcohol may be provided in a University context would be developed.
RESOLVED
33.5
to approve the draft Alcohol and Drugs Misuse Policy for implementation
in advance of 27 April 2012, subject to the comments above;
33.6
to recommend that authority be delegated to the Chair of Council to
approve the final text of the Policy.
34
CARDIFF PEOPLE
Received and considered paper 11/748, ‘Cardiff People’.
NOTED
34.1
that the replacement of the current HR system [Compel] would be in two
stages, the first being the implementation of the e-recruitment system
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(now in place) and the second involving the core HR and Payroll
package;
34.2
that the e-recruitment system had recently gone live and the only major
problem so far had been in relation to drawing down information from the
English to the Welsh pages, for which a “work around” had been
developed as a temporary measure;
34.3
that the second phase involved mapping the organisational structure of
the University and that, so far, 40% had been achieved;
34.4
that a parallel payroll would run for at least 2 months and would continue
until the University was satisfied that the new system was functioning
correctly;
34.5
that it was hoped to run the first payroll on the new system in July;
34.6
that implementation of the first tranche of the core programme remained
on course for October 2012, subsequent programme tranches would
have staged implementation dates in the following months;
34.7
that consultation was on going on proposals to restructure staff support
for the new systems, particularly when employee and manager selfservice was implemented;
34.8
that a number of staff have already gained alternative employment in the
University through the redeployment process and that, should Grade 5
and above staff be affected, a business case would be brought to
Council in line with redundancy procedures.
35
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
NOTED
35.1
continued support from the Welsh Government for the Welsh Optometric
Postgraduate Education Centre [WOPEC] in OPTOM;
35.2
that the Students’ Union was congratulated on two successes at the
recent Welsh NUS conference:
36

CU Students’ Union winning the Students Union of the Year
award;

Sam Reid winning the Student Unionist of the Year award.
UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT BOARD MINUTES
Received and noted papers 11/493, 11/560, 11/632 and 11/685 being
the Minutes of the University Management Board of 23 November, 21
December, 25 January and 22 February respectively.
Arising therefrom
36.1
Student Report [vide UMB Minute 54.8, 21 December]
NOTED that the Vice-Chancellor would discuss the feasibility and
options for the provision of transport between Newport Road, Heath
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Park and Cathays Campuses with the Director of Physical and
Financial Resources.
37
FOR INFORMATION
NOTED that the following papers were received by the Committee:
38
Chair’s Action Report
Vice-Chancellor’s Fund – Expenditure Approvals
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
11/740
11/739
NOTED that the next meeting would be on Tuesday 8 May 2012 at
5.00pm.
8X