Vice-Chancellor's introduction
It’s hard to believe it’s December already. It only felt like yesterday we welcomed our new students for the start of a new academic year, but now Christmas is just around the corner. The sense of time flying by is also underpinned by the quickening pace of change this year as part of our ‘reset’. Since March, new senior leaders have been appointed, new departmental structures have been put in place and the drive to improve efficiency, identify savings and recruit more students is accelerating.
In this bulletin I have updates on our financial position and two important masterplan updates on our estate and digital infrastructure, which are integral parts of our ‘reset’. There are also updates on our latest research and innovation achievements and our work as a University of Sanctuary as a welcoming and safe place for refugees and asylum seekers including academics at risk.
Finally, as we approach the end of 2023 I would like to personally wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. The last working day for most of us is Friday 22 December. I hope you all have a happy, enjoyable and well deserved break with a special thanks for colleagues who will be working over the festive period to support our students in halls and on campus.
Reset
If you have joined either a VC Address or last week’s All-Staff Q&A you will have heard more about our University Reset. To achieve our ambition to be a top modern University in a way that is sustainable we need to critically appraise all our activities, stripping out the unnecessary, improving efficiencies, using all our resources in a smarter way. It also means facing some difficult realities about our activities and being clear as to what is a priority, what needs to change and what needs to stop.
Since I talked about this first back in March, I and the University Executive have started this work with Paul Hayes leading a ‘Task and Finish’ Group. One of the initial activities has been a focus on our costs. Over the last several weeks leaders across the University have been reviewing their budgets and activities and been tasked with establishing savings that we can make now and identify opportunities for future savings. If you were able to join the Q&A last week you will have heard Paul describe these as enduring savings i.e. they will be permanent. Some savings are simpler to achieve and can be implemented immediately, others will take more thought and planning. All the proposed savings have been assessed by a validation group to ensure they are appropriate and to avoid any unintended consequences.
These savings are a necessary first step to rapidly address our immediate deficit but saving is not the only thing we are doing. We cannot, of course, rely on cost savings as a long term solution. We also need to look at where our investment of time, resource, and money, will enable us to drive efficiencies and adapt to be fit for the future and the ever changing nature of HE. This will take more time to establish and implement. Throughout all this we have our students at the heart of our plans ensuring we continue to deliver the excellent teaching and support they expect and deserve.
I recognise that this process does not come without some pain as we change what we do in some areas and take some difficult decisions about any activities that have to stop. I know you will understandably want to know more about what this means for you and your school or department. UEB has met with Senior Leaders to share the process for this savings programme so that they in turn can share it with colleagues. There is more work to do as we review proposals for longer term change which will take a few more weeks. We will share further information directly with you or via senior leaders as soon as we can.
Our Estates Masterplan
In my VC Annual Address 2023, I gave a brief update on our revised Estates Masterplan, which focuses on achieving five key projects that will enhance our campus and support the growth of our university.
These projects have been carefully selected to ensure that we continue to provide fantastic learning, working, research and living environments for our students, staff and the wider community.
Our five key projects are:
1) Student Hub
The Student Hub will link the Library and the Students’ Union Building. This new building will provide spaces for social learning and wellbeing services, including a variety of student services, a student lounge, a coffee bar/ kitchen, an SU Shop and an exciting event space. There are also plans to include sleeping pods for affordable emergency overnight accommodation.
2) Institute of Marine Science
The Institute of Marine Science (IMS) project will provide improved facilities at our site in Eastney. The existing buildings will also be refurbished to modern standards, including the expansion of much-needed teaching and social learning spaces. The scheme will deliver a number of phases to minimise the impact on the environment and ongoing business.
3) Technology Building (University House site)
This new building will allow for the co-location of the Technology Faculty and the consolidation of existing facilities within a single building, offering a high-quality multifunctional environment and student experience.
4) Laboratory Building (Nuffield site)
Our aim is to create exemplary modern teaching lab facilities that allow for more efficient and collaborative lab spaces, bringing together the forensic services, the Extreme Environment Lab along with general teaching and student learning space.
5) Business and Law Building (smaller development at Victoria Park site)
The original design of the Victoria Park building was intended to house two faculties of the University. This scheme is now paused whilst we rethink the designs to facilitate the current need for the Faculty of Business and Law within the new more modest and fit-for-purpose building located in Victoria Park.
Timeline
These projects may slightly adapt over time as there are lots of feasibility studies and design consultations that we need to do first. Currently, we are in the pre-planning stage, conducting research and consultation with stakeholders, including Portsmouth City Council.
But be assured that we are committed to accelerating our investment in our estate. In parallel with the masterplan, the Estates Team continues to carry out maintenance and upgrades across the campus to deliver positive improvements throughout our estate. We will continue to share further updates on our Estates Masterplan as they develop.
Transition to Microsoft 365
In March I wrote candidly about the difficult periods in the history of the University and called for a moment of reset - including the importance of embracing the digital age.
Our Digital Transformation Plan is central to this, setting a clear direction of travel to transform our University to be at the forefront of innovation in effectively applying digital technologies. Jon Ward, Chief Information Officer, who leads our Library and Information Services (LIS), will oversee a program of actions to develop the strong digital ecosystem we need to allow us to modernise and improve our activities and processes.
The transition from Google to Microsoft365 (M365) is one of the next key Digital Transformation Plan projects that supports this direction of travel. This decision has been a conscious choice on how we want our university to operate in the future. We need to be smart with our money, and not pay for two systems when they have the same functionality. It is better to focus our energies on one system to align with our strategic operating principles and to support consistency of approach across our university. It will:
- Transform our student and staff user experience
- Improve data quality and provide a rich information experience
- Build an efficient digital ecosystem
- Be sustainable in the development of efficient practices, processes and technology.
Our London Campus has been the forerunner in moving to M365 and we look forward to bringing the rest of the University on board.
We acknowledge this is a significant change and are under no illusion there will be challenges. For some colleagues this decision will be enthusiastically welcomed but for others it will be considered a very unwelcome change. This is why there will be a clear focus on engagement including a discovery phase to understand our current practices using Google. To support the implementation of the Digital Masterplan, LIS will also launch our volunteer Digital Superheroes.
Finally, we should always reflect on our digital practices - if you are a digital hoarder (as most of us are!) now is the time to organise your virtual clutter. From January to April, the Records Management team will be offering bookable monthly webinars to support digital housekeeping. I want to encourage us all to take action now to tidy up our data storage to ensure that we are not storing documents that are out of date and no longer used.
2022/23 Financial statements
The Financial Statements for the financial year 2022/23 were approved by the Board of Governors at their meeting on 22 November 2023.
The University budgeted for a deficit of £21 million in 2022/23. The final audited result was an operating deficit of £2.4 million, mainly attributable to increased investment income and a significant adjustment in pension liability calculations. While there was a shortfall in income from home full-time undergraduate students due to the under-recruitment in 2022/23 this was compensated by the over-recruitment of international students, income from investments and income from innovation activities, residences and catering. There were savings in costs achieved by our faculties and professional services, by deferring or scaling back planned activity. There was also a net reduction in staffing costs due to an actuarial adjustment for the Local Government Pension Scheme against an increase of £4.4m in pay uplift and staffing changes.
At 31 July 2023 our cash balances and investments were recorded at £329 million, this comprising a mixture of the loan we secured a few years ago and accumulated surpluses achieved over a number of previous years. Plans to deliver a range of improvements to the University Campus, including the Estates Masterplan are in development and are only possible because of these cash balances that have been accumulated over many years to help fund these developments.
While this is a good result for last year, it should be considered in the context of this current year, where as previously stated the situation is very challenging. The Board of Governors has agreed a budgeted deficit of £13 million for this current year, but achieving this is dependent on significant in-year savings as a result of significant under recruitment of home students again this current year.
The Financial Statements are available online.
University of Sanctuary update
As we work towards University of Sanctuary status, the University has committed to investing up to £80,000 a year supporting scholars at risk through the Council for At-Risk Academics’ (Cara) fellowship programme. In October two potential fellows were interviewed by University colleagues. Both have received and accepted offers of fellowships which will enable them to continue their research in safety and without fear of persecution.
In September the University’s new immigration law advice service opened up alongside our existing Legal Advice Clinic. The Access to Justice project provides completely free legal advice and casework for anyone trying to navigate the UK’s notoriously complex immigration rules. The majority of their recent cases have revolved around human rights-based applications or domestic abuse. Access to Justice currently has one qualified adviser, supported by three trainees.
If you would like to find out more about either of these schemes please contact charles.leddy-owen@port.ac.uk.
Research roundup - from shore power to professional development
There have been a series of notable successes from our researchers. While it is impossible to list all, here are a few examples highlighted by our faculties:
- The Faculty of Technology hosted an event on 29 November to coincide with the start of the UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai. The meeting was about SEA CHANGE - the project to design, build and operate a ‘shore power’ system across the three busiest berths at Portsmouth International Port. This will allow visiting ferry or cruise ships to turn off their engines when in the port, as they will be able to ‘plug in’ and use green electricity to run their onboard systems.
- The Faculty is also collaborating with TANGI0 LTD on a new £250,000 Knowledge Transfer Partnership project led by Dr Dalin Zhou from the School of Computing to improve the human-machine interaction for smart Internet of Things and rehabilitation devices at reduced costs. This initiative marks significant progress in embedding artificial intelligence and machine learning in low-power devices.
- Dr Hongjie Ma from the School of Energy and Electronic Engineering was recently appointed as a panel member for the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Interdisciplinary Assessment College, which has been established as an important new approach to funding interdisciplinary research.
- In the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Centre for Continuing Professional Development (CCPD) held a successful launch event in early December. CCPD already works with teams across the university to run a range of successful short courses and summer schools, and has exciting plans to expand market share, including offering custom-made training solutions to local and international stakeholders. If you have an idea about a short course and want support in setting it up please email ccpd@port.ac.uk.
Staff events in the new year
Following the Christmas Break, here are a few dates for your diaries:
All-Staff Briefing and Q&A - 1 February at 9.00am via Zoom
Cafe Conversations - 15 February 2024 at 2.00pm, location to be confirmed nearer the time.