From the Vice-Chancellor

I do hope that colleagues managed a break at some point over Easter despite the unseasonably cold weather (OK- I am a soft southerner but surely it was a bit cold…). It has been good to see the students back and the library and Student Central busy again.

Senate

At our Senate meeting at the end of March the case for the merger of SCIM and EDT was agreed in principle and the process of looking at the detailed arrangements for the change has started. It has been really good to have a positive lead from the schools which, whilst acknowledging the work that needs to be done, recognises the potential advantages to be gained from the change. We will be working hard with staff and students to support the change and we will be considering carefully the investment needs of the merged entity if it is to develop and grow its teaching and research in the way anticipated by the plans.

Senate also discussed plans in place for the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) institutional review due to take place sometime in 2014. We want to make sure we are well prepared for this and, in particular, that we are able to work closely with our student representatives in preparing our self- evaluation documents and in discussing issues and initiatives with the QAA assessors.

National Student Survey (NSS)

Many thanks to staff who have continued to encourage as many of our final year  students as possible to complete their NSS returns. Despite these efforts we are still lagging behind where we were last year and some way short of our target of trying to ensure 70% of our students complete NSS. In some areas, such as Chemical & Forensic Sciences, Physio, Media Studies and Midwifery, the turnout has been very impressive, but this is not the case across the University. Given that some of the best performers in the sector routinely get over 75% of their students to complete the NSS we really ought to be able to achieve better than our current returns.

In general the more students who complete NSS, the better the overall results are when they are announced in August. Increasing our NSS returns is a good way of helping to improve our overall scores which we know are a key component of most league tables and also feature in the key information sets that prospective students use in choosing where to apply.

Higher Education budgets

The University received its budget updates from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) at the end of last month. Happily there were no unpleasant surprises and we were broadly in the position that we had modelled at the end of last year. We are now seeing the dramatic cuts in the size of the teaching allocations from HEFCE which are being replaced by contributions from the raised tuition fees that took effect in September 2012. The research and science budgets continue to receive a degree of protection but that will be increasingly difficult for HEFCE to sustain. It is also likely that there will be continuing pressure on the widening participation budget which may potentially impact on us in the next couple of years.

The overall impact of the budget in March is generally gloomy. Our main funding department, Business, Innovation and Skills is likely to see additional cuts  of 1% in 13/14 and 2% in 14/15 and, given that the HE budget takes the lion’s share of BIS, this cannot but impact on HEFCE budgets in the future.

re:centre

re:centre at the University of Bradford will open its doors in June and will provide a new space for research, regeneration, reinvention and rethinking the future.

The building was known throughout its building phase as The Sustainable Enterprise Centre, but it is recognised that thinking around sustainability has moved considerably since this project started back in 2007 and the new name will ‘re:flect’ new agendas in a way that is distinctive within Higher Education.

If you would like a hard hat tour of the building before completion, then there are set dates through to opening at the end of June. Please contact sec@bradford.ac.uk for further details. In July there’ll be a series of open house events for people to look around and learn more about the future activities of the centre.

In the region

I’m pleased to report that the University will be playing the lead role in a new Yorkshire Innovation Fund which will be distributing some £10m of funding to universities in Yorkshire.  Funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the University has worked hard over the last couple of years to secure ERDF funds for this initiative which will provide support for innovative industrial partnerships and knowledge transfer activities with universities in the region.

The fund will be based in the University Research and Knowledge Transfer function, with staff appointments funded through ERDF.

There will also be some new faces amongst the Vice-Chancellors of the region. Whilst my replacement is likely to be announced in late-April, new VC’s will also be taking over at Leeds and York University over the next few months. 

For football fans and non-fans alike, it has been great to celebrate the achievements of Bradford City in getting to Wembley. Whilst the result was not what we’d hoped for, it provided a welcome boost of positive publicity for the city. I know it marked a highlight for many of our staff and students who made it to the game and came back disappointed at the result, but exhilarated at the show the fans and team had put on. I was also pleased to hear that one of our students, Gintare Karpaviciute, from the School of Computing, Informatics and Media, was on the sidelines at Wembley as an official club photographer. Gintare was among students who took up the club’s invitation to film and photograph home games this season. Her photos impressed the club so much that she was invited to the final at Wembley Stadium.

Academic Regulations

At the most recent Senate meeting a number of important changes to our academic regulations were approved. These will help to ensure a fairer outcome for our students in terms of their final degree results, as the changes we are making bring our processes much more in line with what happens elsewhere in the sector. Shirley Congdon, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching, has helped to shape these changes and has been very busy communicating them to staff and, in particular to all our current students.

Such developments should not be seen in isolation from the wider set of changes we are making to our curriculum and teaching programmes. These are designed to provide a positive, supportive and engaged atmosphere for learning and teaching at Bradford. Alongside our project to ensure that our black and minority ethnic students achieve results at least as good as their white counterparts, our focus over the next few years will be to continue to raise the aspirations, academic outcomes and employability of our students. Nothing can be more important than that in securing our future.

League Table Performance

The most recent meeting of the University’s Council, held in January, included some key debates on our performance in the league tables. It’s an issue that remains central to our corporate strategy and our focus on the quality of our learning and teaching and student performance will make the single biggest difference to our league table performance over the next few years.

Investment Strategy

Council also debated some of our proposals around the nature of our investment strategy over the next five years. At a time of uncertainty it is important to continue to make investments in staff, in research facilities and in the estate. The meeting provided an opportunity to begin to explore sets of proposals around our ambitions for the University.

Discussion around continuing to invest in research, in the work we need to do to make our student support services as accessible and open as possible, in future developments around community pharmacy and optometry facilities, and in the estate itself helped to demonstrate how we want the University to develop and how our Council can support specific proposals.

SCIM/EDT Proposals

I have flagged up in previous postings the discussions around creating a new unitary structure for SCIM and EDT which will deliver a stronger academic footprint and better use of resources. The work of the Task Group set up to look at the possible options has worked hard with both staff and students to explore why a unitary structure might work, what advantages it might deliver and the difficulties it might face.

Likely structures have been discussed with staff in the schools and we are continuing to work with the student body to reassure them that their own work and progress will not be damaged in any way by proposed changes. It is likely that a paper seeking agreement on the key principles and structures can go to Senate for discussion at the end of March. If senate approves those proposals, more detailed discussions and an implementation plan can be put in place in order that the new grouping can be functioning by the start of the new academic year.

National Student Survey (NSS)

Our final year students are currently completing their returns to the NSS. These are vital to the University. They are one of the most important components on university league tables and our work to improve our overall position depends critically on good returns. The NSS is also a very valuable source of feedback on our programmes and support. We cannot, of course, directly influence what they say but we can try to ensure that as many of our students as possible complete the returns.

At the moment our return rate is some way below both where we were at the equivalent stage last year and where the sector currently is. There are PowerPoint slides available which can be shown at the start or end of lectures to promote the survey. It is also worth noting that the survey can be easily completed on a smartphone. So I ask that you encourage as many students as possible to fill in the survey.

Today and tomorrow we celebrate the success of another cohort of our students as they graduate. Congratulations to all our graduates, honorary graduates and the many friends and family joining us here in Bradford for the celebrations.

It has been a busy few weeks on campus welcoming new and returning students and it has been great to see the Atrium and Student Central so busy.  I know academic and support staff everywhere have worked hard to support our new students and to make them feel part of the community here.

The Higher Education sector is carefully digesting the impact of the big changes we have seen this year in the funding regime. Of course the full impact of the changes will be evident over the next few years but it is very clear that there will be no ‘rolling back’ of the changes whatever the nature of the government in power. I have been able to talk to many of you in the recent assemblies I’ve held and I hope people feel both a sense of optimism in the face of change coupled with a clearer understanding of the things that we can do, both individually and collectively, to ensure we remain strong and sustainable.

I hope that colleagues in the Schools are now able to look in detail at the National Student Survey (NSS) quantitative and qualitative results for last year which were made available last month.  They provide an important barometer of how the student experience at Bradford compares with other universities. What is interesting is the range of variation between different subject areas within the same school with some outstanding performances alongside results which are well below the national subject averages. The point I made at the assemblies about many of the mechanisms for improving our position in, for example, league tables being in our own hands is underlined by these results. Whilst I do accept that the methodologies in the NSS are less than perfect they are an important part of league table data that we need to take very seriously.

I wanted to flag up an important initiative we are developing in relation to the attainment of our students. We are very good at being able to attract and support students from a wide and diverse range of backgrounds to study at Bradford but we are less good at helping them to achieve really good results at the end of their time here. Our percentage of ‘Good Honours’ results (either a First or Upper Second degree) is one of the lowest in the country. We also have a significant gap in the percentage figure across different ethnic backgrounds. I have asked Nadira Mirza, formerly the Dean of SLED, to take on a role as Director of Student Success, to lead an initiative to improve the results of all of our students but, in particular to try to understand and deal with the attainment gap between students from different ethnic backgrounds. If we can narrow those gaps our league table performance will be significantly improved. I was also pleased to be able to sign our student charter together with Furquan Naeem from UBU, at a recent event, which I hope demonstrates our commitment to work together with our students to help them develop and succeed at University.

The summer has been a busy period for building work on our estate and it is pleasing to see some key projects coming close to completion. The games areas close to the library will open shortly and will provide much-needed recreational space for both staff and students.

The work of the library is also close to completion. I hope you’ll agree that it has transformed the two upper floors and created a much more open and functional space with great views over the amphitheatre. And, it has been completed on budget and on time. My thanks especially to all the staff in the Library who have had to deal with construction work, with the establishment of a range of special arrangements for students and with a vast amount of work with the stock. I am convinced we’ll feel it has been worthwhile.

The Sustainable Enterprise Centre is also progressing well. We knew it would be a challenge to hope that the low-carbon hempcrete walls would be able to properly dry out in the summer, especially as I’m not sure we had a summer this year, but it is on track and will provide an iconic, very low carbon build at the heart of the campus. It shows we can build sustainably, innovatively and to budget and demonstrates what a great Estates team we have.

Celebrating Success

I was pleased to join the Lord Mayor of Bradford to congratulate our grounds staff on their Yorkshire in Bloom Gold Rose and Chairman’s prize. Their work to create a maintain such a fantastic environment for students, staff and visitors is a a great example of how all staff contribute to the Universities success. At a recent Open Day a number of visitors commented on how green the campus is and were pleasantly surprised to find such a wonderful setting so close to a city centre.

A number of colleagues have recently been promoted to reader or professor:

• Dr Claire Surr, Reader in Dementia Studies
• Dr Gerry Armitage, Professor of Health Services Research
• Dr Marina Bloj, Professor of Visual Perception
• Dr Neil Cooper, Professor of International Security Studies
• Dr Ian Scowen, Professor of Analytical Chemistry
• Dr Rami Qahwaji, Professor of Visual Computing

Congratulations to all.

Best Wishes,

Mark Cleary

I have had to cancel my Annual Address to Staff Assembly on November 22 2012 because I will be attending the MDIS Graduation Ceremony in Singapore. Over 1000 students will be receiving Bradford degrees at that ceremony in what will be the largest overseas ceremony the University has held.

Rather than rescheduling the address I have instead  been talking to groups of staff about the challenges facing the University in a series of smaller meetings for Academic School Assemblies and Corporate Services.  I have already completed a number of these and will be holding at least seven such meetings in total.

These smaller meetings will hopefully provide a good opportunity for staff to raise issues and questions of concern and to hear about some of the challenges and opportunities facing both the sector at large and the University.

You are probably aware of the current press coverage around recruitment across the Higher Education sector for the new entry in 2012. We have of course all been aware of the very significant funding changes taking place for entry this year, with the introduction of higher fees and I wanted to reassure colleagues about the current position here at Bradford.

I also want to reflect on what the implications of the current position are in terms of our longer term strategy. I will be arranging a series of meetings in Schools and Corporate Services in the next two to three weeks where I can talk to you more directly about our position and you can have the opportunity to raise any issues and questions you have directly with me.

As I indicated to you in my last message, we will be welcoming fewer students to the University this year than in previous years. We are likely to be below our Student Contract Number (the number set by our funding council, HEFCE, for Home/EU undergraduates) but we will not know the precise figure until enrolment is complete. At present we look to have recruited 1900 students on a target figure of 2106. However I would stress that figure continues to change.

We did over recruit last year and incurred a significant penalty so we have been anxious not to do that this year. Our recruitment of overseas students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level has also been challenging, especially in the light of U.K. Border Agency issues, but we are continuing to work hard to maintain our traditionally strong international recruitment levels. I would again wish to thank all of our staff who have been working so hard over the last month dealing with applications and acceptances. That hard work is greatly appreciated in what has been a very different and sometimes challenging clearing period.

There will inevitably be financial consequences. When we have a clearer picture  we will be looking at how we ensure the continued financial and academic  health of the University. That is important for all of us wherever we work and whatever our role. We want to maintain employment and morale and do all we can, as we have done up to now, to avoid compulsory redundancies within the University. Everyone has a stake in seeking to maintain employment and I remain grateful to staff for the work they have done to continue to strengthen where we are.

Let me be clear that I am not gloomy about where we are and what we can learn from the 2012 entry. We knew there were significant challenges from the fee regime and we were confident that the strengths we had to offer – especially excellent employability for our students and a staff fully engaged in research and professional activity – would justify our fee levels. We have continued to attract very good students to our courses. Students achieving AAB grades have continued to choose Bradford, our overall UCAS tariff for students entering this year has continued to rise, and our undergraduate recruitment has not in any way ‘collapsed’ as some of the gloomier prognoses of last year might have suggested.

Within the context of the sector, and given the magnitude of the changes for 2012 we should be confident and pleased that our undergraduate recruitment is as strong as it is. As we argued in our discussions in the course of our fee-setting, the key to our future success is not whether or not we meet what is in essence an external ‘target’ for our contract numbers. It is our ability to attract enough good students in an open market. To achieve this we must articulate how they will benefit from their investment in the future. Our focus on Making Knowledge Work remains absolutely critical and the key elements of that, which I presented in an earlier update, remain the key to our continued success. Our efforts need to continue to focus on the difference that a Bradford degree makes to individuals and communities.

I look forward to talking about these challenges and opportunities with you in the next few weeks. Thank you for all your efforts to ensure our continued sustainability in the future. For me all of the speculation, reflection and discussion about ‘what will happen in 2012’ is at least close to being answered. The University is in good shape and has continued to attract good students. Our focus on employability and on our research activity has resonated with those students. Of course there remain both short and medium-term challenges in how and what we deliver, and how we ensure our sustainability. Nevertheless I would urge you to remain confident and positive as we move into the new environment for higher education.