Senate, 28 January 2014
NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
SENATE
28 January 2014
Present:The Vice-Chancellor (in the Chair), Professor Ella Ritchie (Deputy Vice-Chancellor), Professor Suzanne Cholerton, Professor Chris Day, Professor Charles Harvey, Professor Steve Homans, and Professor Nick Wright (Pro-Vice-Chancellors), Dr Debbie Bevitt,Professor Colin Brooks,Dr Heather Brown, Dr Tim Cheek, Professor Zofia Chrzanowska-Lightowlers, Professor Peter Clarke, Professor Steve Clifford, Dr Hugh Dauncey,Dr Joanna Elson, Dr Catherine Exley, Professor John Fitzgerald, Dr Alton Horsfall, Professor Tom Joyce, Ms Abi Kelly, Mr Calum Mackenzie (President, Students’ Union), Professor Neill Marshall, Professor Julia Newton, Dr Ole Pedersen, , Ms Emily Waller (Welfare and Equality Officer, Students’ Union), and Mr Steve Williams.
In attendance:Mrs Lesley Braiden (Acting Academic Registrar), Dr John Hogan (Registrar), Mrs Veryan Johnston (Executive Director of Human Resources) and Mrs Sam Taylor (Executive Officer (Governance)).
Apologies:Ms Eve Berwin (Education Officer, Students’ Union), Mr Wayne Connolly, Mr Mike Davison, Mr Richard Dale (Executive Director of Finance), Ms Sabine Kucher (student member),Professor Paul Seedhouse,Dr Neelam Srivastava, Professor Tony Stevenson, Dr Tony Young and Professor Martha Young-Scholten.
Mrs Louise Edwards-Holland, Deputy Director of Human Resources, attended as an observer.
Mr Simon Gerry, Newcastle University Students’ Union Chief Executive, attended for minute 36.
M I N U T E S
30.DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
No declarations of interest were received.
31.MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting of Senate held on 26 November 2013 were approved as a correct record and signed.
32.MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
Progress of business
There were no outstanding items on the business tracking form.
33.VICE-CHANCELLOR’S BUSINESS
Received the Vice-Chancellor’s report.
[Circulated with the agenda as Document B. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
1.Deaths
Received a report on deaths recently announced by the University.
Resolved that Senate record its deep regret and sympathy for the relatives concerned.
2.Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Engagement and Internationalisation)
The recruitment process for the appointment of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Internationalisation will begin with the advertisement of the post on 30 January. The selection process will take place in March and the selection committee comprises:
Vice-Chancellor (Chair)
Ms Jacqui Henderson
Mr Simon Pleydell
Ms Vicky Wright
Professor Suzanne Cholerton
Professor Mark Shucksmith
Professor Paul Watson
Resolved that the Selection Committee for the appointment of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Internationalisation, was approved by Senate.
3.Pay Negotiation and Industrial Action
The Chair of Council approved the UCEA recommendation to implement the 1% pay increase, in December, and which was backdated to 1st August 2013. The recommendation was made despite continuing industrial action.
A joint strike day took place on 31 October and 3rd December, and UCU advised that its members would ‘work to contract’ from 1 November 2013. Further industrial action is planned in the form of three 2 hour strikes, the first of which took place on 23 January followed by 28 January and 10 February. There had been minimal impact on the student experience following the first of the strike days. Notification has been received that further industrial action is scheduled to take place on 6 February.
4.Vice-Chancellor visits abroad
The Vice-Chancellor has recently returned from visits to our overseas campuses in Malaysia and Singapore, and to strategic partners in China (Xiamen), Australia (Monash), and Indonesia (Universitas Indonesia).
Singapore: The Vice-Chancellor met with the new President of the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), Professor Tan Thiam Soon. Newcastle University will continue to develop the relationship with SIT as a major strategic partner.
Malaysia: The accommodation building for students at the International Student Village is not satisfactory and is currently the only accommodation available on campus. The Executive Director of Finance has been asked to look into alternatives for this.
Xiamen: Xiamen University is one of our international Strategic Partners, along with Groningen, Monash and SIT. A proposal for a joint and equal partnership with them for the two Business Schools to offer an International Management programme as a dual degree has been accepted. A joint Strategic Partnership Board has now been constituted, with three senior representatives from each university; this includes Professor Ella Ritchie, Professor Charles Harvey and Professor Steve Hughes from Newcastle University. Each of the partners has a lead person; this is Professor Hughes from our University.
Monash: The Vice-Chancellor was joined by Professor Chris Day to visit Monash University with a view to re-focus the relationship on Medical Sciences, building on the longstanding collaboration in Neuroscience.
Universitas Indonesia: The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been renewed and the Vice-Chancellor has been invited to join a UK delegation led by David Willets, Minister for Universities and Science.
5.HEFCE Postgraduate Support Scheme
Newcastle University is a member of a consortium, which is led by Sheffield University and includes universities of Leeds, Manchester, York and Warwick, which has been successful in gaining funding from HEFCE’s Postgraduate Support Scheme. The project aims to investigate factors affecting widening access to postgraduate study and the professions and provides over £4m to support postgraduate students across the consortium. The specific role of Newcastle University is to model the postgraduate taught landscape though qualitative and quantitative data gathering in order to develop an understanding of motivations and barriers to PGT study for students
6.Doctoral Training Partnerships
Notification has been received that the NERC IAPETUS Doctoral Training Partnership bid was successful. The consortium brings together the Universities of Durham, Glasgow, Newcastle, St Andrews and Stirling with the British Geological Survey and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. The consortium will receive £5m from NERC which is sufficient to fund in excess of 60 PhD studentships over the next five years.
It was also noted that the School of Mechanical & Systems Engineering is to collaborate in a new ESPRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Additive Manufacture and 3D Printing. The new Centre will train 70 researchers in the multidisciplinary field of additive manufacturing and provide with industry-facing skills to become future leaders in additive manufacturing. The Centre will be led by Nottingham University with collaboration from Newcastle, Liverpool and Loughborough universities. Professor Kenny Dalgarno will be leading for Newcastle University.
Thirdly, the Diamond Science and Technology CDT brings together universities of Warwick, Aberystwyth, Bristol, Cardiff, Imperial, Newcastle, Oxford and Strathclyde and 30 companies who have helped bring diamond research to a new threshold which promises many new diamond enabled technologies and new scientific insights. Together the team will deliver innovative and interdisciplinary training and research that will help cross that threshold and impact significantly in many areas of strategic interest. The team involved from Newcastle University are Dr Jonathan Goss, Professor Patrick Briddon, Dr Alton Horsfall, Professor Nick Wright and Dr Lidija Siller.
7.Visit Days
The Visit Days for 2014 have been confirmed as Friday 27 and Saturday 28 June, and Saturday 27 September. The Postgraduate Open day is scheduled to take place on 5 February, and the University is expecting over 650 prospective Postgraduate students to visit the campus. The event is aimed at those who wish to find out more about Postgraduate study opportunities at Newcastle University and has been widely promoted around the city and invitations have been sent to over 10,000 prospective students. The programme includes a series of presentations on Postgraduate study and funding, campus tours, a subject information fair and School based activities.
8.The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement 2013
The Autumn Statement 2013 announced that the government will remove the cap on student numbers at publicly funded higher education institutions in England by 2015-16. This will enable institutions to expand their provision to meet demand from an estimated 60,000 young people a year who have the grades to enter higher education but do not currently secure a place. This announcement came as a surprise to the sector.
The government is committed to selling off the student loan book after five years to a financial provider.
9.Rankings and Reputation
Newcastle University was ranked 198th in the world in the Times Higher Education world league table. This matter will be discussed at the Executive Board Away Day in February, and feedback will be given to the joint meeting of Senate and Council, at its meeting 28 April 2014.
10.Late News
(i)Reputation and Rankings
‘Commercial in confidence’ Minute, filed in the Minute Book.
11.Early Warnings
(i)Council Election process
The election process for Senate appointed members on Council is currently underway. There are two vacancies in the Professorial constituency and one vacancy in the Non-Professorial constituency. Senators were reminded that nominations should be submitted to the Registrar by 14 February 2014.
34.HUMAN RESOURCES STRATEGY PROGRESS REPORT
Received a progress report on the Human Resources Strategy from Mrs Veryan Johnston, Executive Director of Human Resources, on behalf of Executive Board.
[Circulated with the agenda as Document C. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
Received a presentation on the Human Resources Strategy: Progress and Challenges, from Mrs Veryan Johnston, Executive Director of Human Resources.
[Copy of the slides filed in the Minute Book.]
Noted that:
1.The Human Resources Strategy was approved by Council in June 2010, and the strategic objectives were reviewed in 2012 and remain relevant. The action plan is largely complete.
2.With the introduction of major projects focussed on ‘Raising the Bar’ and ‘Growth’ a refresh of the Strategy and action plan may be necessary.
3.At University level the Employee Opinion Survey responses on workload resulted in 33% stating workload is too much and 55% reporting the need to put in additional time to meet demands of the workload. The response from academic staff is higher for the same question. Clarification was given that performance management is used both to address a small number of poor performances and to try to improve our overall performance. Success is recognised by the University at Celebrating Success events, as well as in many other ways.
4.The possibility of attracting professionals from industry and business to part time roles in certain areas may be explored as a way ofcompeting with salary levels outside Higher Education.
5.The complexity of the University timetabling process was discussed, and it was recognised that there are many factors which are to be taken into consideration when the timetabling for the academic year is scheduled, but in some instances this leads to academic members of staff having teaching scheduled for 5 days per week which restricts the opportunity for research.
Resolved that Professor Cholerton, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching, will liaise with colleagues in the timetabling team to discuss the issues raised.
35.EQUALITY AND DIVERSTIY STRATEGY
Considered:
(a)A report on the Equality and Diversity Strategy from Mrs Veryan Johnston, Executive Director of Human Resources, on behalf of Executive Board.
(b)The Annual Equality and Diversity Monitoring report
[Circulated with the agenda as Documents D and E. Copies filed in the Minute Book.]
Noted that:
- Council, at its meeting on 13 December 2010 approved the Single Equality Scheme for 2010-2013. This had now undergone a review which included the renaming of the scheme as the Equality Strategy.
- The University is required by law to review the Equality Strategy and Action plan every three years and to publish the revised documents on our website. The next review will take place in 2016.
- The University is required to publish equality and diversity monitoring information on an annual basis and publicise the information on our website.
- Newcastle University is committed to the Athena SWAN Charter for women in science, and successfully renewed its Athena SWAN bronze award in November 2012. All schools and institutes in the Faculties of Medical Sciences and Science, Agriculture and Engineering are working towards submitting Athena SWAN applications. The University is working towards achieving silver status by 2015.
- Council, at its meeting on 9 December 2013, approved the Equality and Diversity Strategy and Action plan for 2013-16
- Professor Judith Rankin will take over the role of Chair of Diversity Committee.
Resolved thatSenate thanked Professor Vicki Bruce for her work as Chair of Diversity Committee, and to Professor Judith Rankin, who is taking over the role of Chair of Diversity Committee.
36.STUDENTS’ UNION IMPACT REPORT
Received the Students’ Union Impact Report 2012-13 from Mr Calum Mackenzie, President, Students’ Union and Mr Simon Gerry, Newcastle University Students’ Union Chief Executive.
[Circulated at the meeting. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
Resolved that Mr Mackenzie and Mr Gerry be thanked for their informative presentation.
37.THE GROWTH AGENDA AND TEACHING ACCOMMODATION
Receiveda report from Dr John Hogan, Registrar, on behalf of Executive Board.
[Circulated with the agenda as Document F. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
‘Commercial in confidence’ Minute, filed in the Minute Book.
38.policy on research involving animals outside of the uk
Considered a report from Dr John Hogan, Registrar, on behalf of Executive Board.
[Circulated with the agenda as Document G. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
It was noted that the report which clarifies the University’s policy on the Use of Animals in Scientific Procedures outside of the UKhas been considered and approved by the University Ethics Committee and University Research Committee.
Resolved that Senate approve the clarification of the University’s policy for the Use of Animals in Scientific Procedures outside of the UK.
39.APPOINTMENT OF A PUBLIC ORATOR in malaysia
Considered the recommendations in report from Dr John Hogan, Registrar, on behalf of Executive Board.
[Circulated with the agenda as Document H. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
Noted that:
- Senate are asked to approve the recommendation to appoint a Public Orator in Malaysia for the first Honorary Degree Ceremony in Malaysia which will take place on 28 June 2014.
- Executive Board will give further consideration to the appointment of a Public Orator for the future ceremonies in Malaysia and Singapore.
Resolved that Senate approve the appointment of Professor Tom Lennard as the Public Orator for the Honorary Degree Ceremony in Malaysia.
40.HONORARY DEGREEES COMMITTEE
Considered a report from the Honorary Degrees Committee.
[Circulated with the agenda as Document J. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
‘Commercial in confidence’ Minute, filed in the Minute Book.
41.annual report of the university
Received the Annual Report of the University, “Profile and Annual Review 2014”.
[Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
42.annual report from public lectures committee
Received the annual report from Public Lectures Committee.
[Circulated with the agenda as Document K. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
43.REPORTED BUSINESS
(i)Reported Business Paper
Received a report of action taken in accordance with agreed procedures, approved where necessary by the Vice-Chancellor on behalf of Senate and/or the Chair of Council on behalf of Council, and by other University bodies and Chairs.
[Circulated with the agenda as Document L. Copy filed in the Minute Book.]
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