VC Bulletin July 2023

Vice-Chancellor's Introduction

The future is very much in our minds with the end of one academic year and the start of another in a few short weeks. This cycle is symbolised by two significant events this summer - celebrating departing students at Graduation and recruiting new students for next year through Clearing. Much care and consideration has been put into both events to ensure they are a success.

Our longer term future was the focus of discussion at our recent Senior Leadership Team (SLT) Forum where we kicked-off the process to define our shape, size and academic character to become the UK’s top modern university and one of the top 100 young universities in the world by 2030. We will adopt a structured approach to this review, and the new Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) will be key to forthcoming phases as we move from discovery to definition, design and development before final delivery. 

This is part of our organisational ‘reset’, taking a holistic view of our organisation and working together - 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. As part of this reset, this bulletin contains a number of significant updates on our estate, the merger of the Library and Information Services, and the move of our Partnership Team, as well as news of our London Campus and REF2028.

We are also in the midst of ‘league table season’, and I’m pleased to say that our international reputation and standing has improved again. We were named as one of the UK’s top 50 universities, according to the 2024 edition of the QS World University Rankings. Portsmouth was placed 50th of all UK universities in the rankings and at 502 in the world, rising over 200 places from a position of 701-750 in last year’s rankings.

We've also risen one place to 9th in the THE Top 10 UK Young Universities ranking (universities that are 50 years old or younger) and maintained our position as 132nd of all Young Universities globally.

We also received our latest Graduate Outcomes results - a national survey of UK graduates 15 months after they finish their studies. The results showed 71.6% of our students are in professional level employment 15 months after graduation, which is a 2.9% increase on last year and our highest ever figure since the survey began four years ago. Our students on average earned over £26,300, which is up by £1,300 on the previous year's results and represents the highest level of average earning reported by our graduates since the survey began. 94% of our students were in some form of work and/or further study 15 months after graduation which is similar to last year's results.

Many people need to be thanked for this collective success, and it’s not possible to name all involved here. But it’s important to recognise people’s achievements so please nominate colleagues, students, alumni or members of the community for a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence, where new categories have been introduced this year to recognise those who have made an exceptional contribution to the University and the community. 

Merger of Information Services and University Library

In my Reset message in March I shared that we were bringing together Information Services (IS) and the Library into one structure. 

The new combined function, Library and Information Services (LIS) comes into effect on 1 August.

Over the past several months, members of the Senior Management teams have been attending each other’s management and executive meetings and work is progressing on a high-level plan for the initial merger in August 2023.

Structural changes will take some time to identify and review so the initial focus will be on communications and budgets. As well as ensuring the smooth running of both these essential services, Jon Ward, Chief Information Officer, and Kath Shakespeare, Interim University Librarian, are starting to explore the opportunities and synergies that will enable us to create enhancements that benefit both students and staff.

Over recent years, the Library team and the Information Services team have jointly piloted a number of new services to our customers, such as a shared space for face-to-face support, the availability of bring your own device (BYOD) workstations across the Library and access to a variety of study pods to complement the zoned spaces around the building. They are also starting to share expertise and learn from each other in ensuring a good customer experience, however their customers interact with the services.

Students and staff will not be impacted by the merger: services to you will continue as before and we anticipate that the merger will allow us to strengthen and improve all these vital services over time.

I would like to thank Jon, Kath and their teams for their positive and professional approach to this merger and maintaining a fantastic service to all our students and staff during this period of change.

Estates update

You will know that our estate is always a hot topic and a real focus for us as we look to make improvements that benefit our students and our staff. As part of our reset priorities the University estate is an area that we need to invest and focus upon urgently. We’ve been doing just that.

Campus improvements

Our Estates and Campus Services team is dedicated to improving our facilities in the short, medium, and long term. They are currently prioritising 91 projects to enhance the functionality and appearance of our estate, with key projects set to be completed this financial year. Here are some examples of their ongoing efforts:

• Burnaby Terrace refurbishment planning is well underway;
• Window graphics have been applied to the Students' Union building (including the old Co-op and Eye Clinic windows) and the back of the Library. Design work is in progress for graphics for Careers and Employability, RIS, Halpern House and Mercantile House. These graphics help to pull together our buildings with strong inter-connected visuals;
• Installation of Electric Charging points;
• Maintenance and refurbishment work in the Students’ Union building with improvement works on the roof and refurbishment of the ground floor toilets;
• New external furniture and lighting for Ravelin Park;
• Cleaning and general maintenance of paths, external areas and courtyards across campus;
• Complete refurbishment of Cafe Coco;
• And summer painting plans across a number of buildings.

Alongside this, within our medium to long-term plans, you will have seen that the work to demolish the Nuffield Building is well progressed in readiness for us to develop our plans for a new teaching and learning facility.

Mercantile House - a new hub for Professional Services

Our estates plan is focused on finding smarter ways to use our resources. While new buildings are exciting, they require significant investment and time. Instead, we are taking action now to optimise our current resources.

The pandemic taught us much about hybrid working and its potential for many of our roles. As a result, many areas have adopted this approach, leading to a decreased need for office space. Our Estates team has been working with colleagues across professional services to determine the necessary spaces for desks, meetings, and storage. This has allowed us to consolidate several professional service areas into Mercantile House:

• Marketing, Advancement and Communications has already successfully consolidated from two and a half floors to using just the 9th Floor;
• Department of Student and Academic Administration (DSAA) are now occupying two floors rather than three;
• Global moved from Nuffield to Mercantile as part of the Nuffield Building decamp with a number of student facing colleagues working from University House;
• Estates and Campus Services will soon be consolidating the space they need from two floors to one;
• Over the coming months we also hope to move Human Resources, Finance, Planning and Corporate Governance to Mercantile. 

We’ve engaged an architect to help us look at the best way to use the space in the building, enabling colleagues to work comfortably and providing some spaces for confidential conversations and meetings.  

Estates Masterplan - priority plans

Through our Estate Masterplan Board we have also identified a number of projects that we will prioritise:

• We're excited to announce the proposed development of a new Student Hub/Wellness Centre/Library Link. Our goal is to improve the student experience by creating new spaces for social learning and a central location for wellbeing services. As part of this project, we will also be providing 21 sleeping pods for affordable emergency overnight accommodations;
• To better use space in the university estate and prevent buildings from falling into disrepair, we are investing in maintaining buildings of significant historical importance, such as Ravelin House. These buildings will be repurposed as office accommodations;
• The Institute of Marine Science will receive long-awaited refurbishment. The funding will be used to enhance its facilities for training, teaching, and overall wellbeing;
• The Nuffield Building is currently undergoing demolition to pave the way for a state-of-the-art laboratory and teaching facility;
• As part of the larger master plan, the Estates team is considering consolidating car parking by building safe and secure multi-storey car parks that are located near the main university campus. These facilities will be designed to be environmentally sustainable and will include electric vehicle charging stations.

We are currently working at a fast pace to complete a large amount of work. We plan to maintain this speed to accomplish our goals as quickly as possible. I want to express my gratitude to Tahir Ahmed, Director of Estates and Campus Services, and his team for accepting the challenge of pushing these improvements forward within a tight timeframe.

Partnership Team to move to Corporate Governance

It has been agreed that the Partnership Team, led by Mark Shaw, currently within DSAA will move to Corporate Governance, under the Directorship of Claire Dunning, with effect from 1 August 2023. 

This move will place the Partnership Team within a legal support framework which aligns well with the keywork that this team delivers for the University and will provide synergies with the Corporate Governance legal team which will facilitate sharing of knowledge and best practice. Importantly, the team's responsibilities will remain the same, and in the short to medium term the team will continue to provide secretariat support to our global partnership committees. As part of a wider review of our committee activities, we will reassess this arrangement later in the year. They will also continue to be involved in wider quality assurance activities relating to partnerships, and will continue to work closely with the Quality Assurance team on partnership quality matters which impact contractual terms and conditions. 

For now the team will stay in Mercantile House until co-location of Corporate Governance and the Partnership Team can take place which is anticipated later this year.

Within my Reset message earlier this year, one of the areas that I said we needed to consider are some of our structures. It’s vital that we have the rights teams and roles in the right places. It supports us being able to operate as effectively as possible but just as importantly it ensures that those undertaking those roles are receiving the right support. This move is a great example of bringing together experts in their field in a way that I’m positive will benefit both the University and the individuals within the teams.

London Campus Update - Juniper House

The developments needed to deliver our London Campus are gathering pace. Our new campus in London will help us achieve our growth ambition for 2030, boosting both applications and conversions through diversifying student recruitment into parts of London where we have previously not had a strong presence.

Based in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in north east London, the campus will extend our reach and reputation in the capital city by moving into an area of growing demand and population growth, especially amongst the age range who are most likely to consider university.

Plans to welcome our first students for January 2024 are well underway with the internal fit-out of Juniper House due for completion later this year. Located a minute’s walk from Walthamstow Central train, tube and bus stations, the Council owned building will include two floors of custom built learning spaces comprising classrooms, a computer lab and social spaces, all equipped with high quality learning technologies. As you can see from these artist impressions, the design is contemporary, exciting and welcoming to all.

The provision of buildings and other capital items is the responsibility of our partner Northchild, while we take responsibility for the academic provision. As a University, while our investment in the estate will be relatively modest, our investment in intellectual property (IP) and staff will ensure that our London Campus will be surplus generating, contributing to our ability to invest in institution-wide projects.

The project team is in the process of recruiting academic and support staff for the London campus. The next steps include an appointment of the Academic Director, and opening up for recruitment of students in the forthcoming weeks. The initial signs are positive, with dozens of enquiries so far and around 30 early applications. This is a crucial phase of the project as we put student services and academic provision in place. I would like to thank Portsmouth colleagues for their support and input into the UoP London campus development thus far. 

Timeline for next Research Excellence Framework (REF)

The much anticipated outcomes of the Future of Research Assessment Programme (FRAP) were recently published to the sector. There is a lot to digest. Most critically, it sets a timeline for REF2028 with a submission deadline of the end of 2027.

However, the current REF2028 proposals may lead to some fundamental shifts in our engagement in the exercise - and potentially how we view excellence. One thing is clear, from the intention and the content of the FRAP report, is that the REF is now very much a team game and success will be more firmly rooted in what Research England describes as “healthy, dynamic and inclusive research environments”. Jeremy Howells, our Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and External Relations), will be sharing his views on how REF2028 might affect Portsmouth with the University Executive Board, with plans to circulate a brief rejoinder on the main elements of REF2028 to all staff, with open meetings planned for later in the year – once details are confirmed.

While we look to the future, it’s important to acknowledge the continuing excellence that our researchers are delivering now. For example:

• The Centre for Blue Governance, led by Pierre Failler, has been awarded a Horizon Research and Innovation Action grant for BlueGreen Governance, of which just under £1 million will be coming to Portsmouth to develop innovative land sea governance schemes;
• Marta Roldo has recently been awarded a Scientist Medal from the International Association of Advanced Materials, following her work over the past decade using chitosan, a sustainable natural polymer obtained from seafood waste, for applications such as drug delivery, tissue engineering and antibacterial formulations;
• The Centre for Cybercrime and Economic Crime organised its annual Counter-Fraud, Cybercrime and Forensic Accounting conference, with over 200 delegates attending in person and another 250 online from multiple countries, with speakers from academia, government agencies and practitioners;
• Furthering our international reputation, Deborah Shaw delivered a talk entitled 'Transnational Cinema: Notes on a developing field of study' as part of an Erasmus funded institutional visit to the University of Lisbon, and Stephen Harper gave a keynote entitled 'An exploration of how film and TV portray mental health' at Northwestern University in Chicago;
• And more locally PhD student Alice Naylor has been awarded a social history prize for her Kenwood Chef project at the Spring Arts Centre in Havant.

Well done all.

Supporting refugees and people seeking sanctuary

Refugee Week took place towards the end of June, and like myself I imagine many of you will have taken the time to reflect on the difficulties and hardship faced by so many around the world.

This is particularly true when we learn about the personal stories within our University community. Stories like Mohammed’s, who was living in emergency accommodation after he and his family had to leave their country to seek asylum in the UK, but who is now able to study at Portsmouth thanks to the Sanctuary Scholarship scheme.

I’m pleased to hear that this year we will be granting two Sanctuary Scholarships to undergraduate recipients due to start courses in the 2023/24 academic year. This support will remove some of their financial pressures and make a real difference to their lives.

This is part of our work to apply for University of Sanctuary status. There are many initiatives underway to support this ambition, including allocating funding to host ‘academics at immediate risk’ as part of the CARA Fellowship programme, working with students in running exercise sessions for refugees, and providing an immigration legal advice service to local residents: the only completely free service of its kind in the city.

Thanks to the hard work of many dedicated staff and students, we strive to make the University a welcoming and safe place for all, including refugees and asylum seekers.

Times Higher Education Awards

The Times Higher Education Awards attracts hundreds of entries from across the university sector showcasing the hard work and commitment of individuals and teams. These awards are a great way of raising our University's profile within the sector and with the wider community, employers and potential applicants.

This year we submitted seven strong and interesting entries from Portsmouth which showcase some of the great work underway across the University:

• Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Leadership - Revolution Plastics is our interdisciplinary initiative to tackle the plastics crisis for our local community and the wider world;
• Outstanding Entrepreneurial University - the University delivers graduate entrepreneurs ready for the workplace of tomorrow and has achieved a student business creation growth rate of 29% per year;
• Most Innovative Teacher of the Year - Alex Bradley’s work embedding employability in lectures and assessments that require students to develop a career plan;
• Outstanding Technician of the Year - Alex Counsell, the driving force behind the creation and launch of the University’s Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Reality (CCIXR);
• Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year - a project to harness the potential impact of XR and CCI’s expertise and excellence in digital innovation to benefit businesses and organisations in the cultural and heritage sectors of Portsmouth and the Solent region;
• Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences - The Chatter Project by Georgia Bowers using theatre to help combat ageism and loneliness in older adults and to encourage resilience;
• Outstanding Marketing/Communications Team - the Media and Communications Team’s campaign to build the reputation of the Revolution Plastics initiative locally, nationally and internationally and position Portsmouth as the UK’s leading university to provide solutions to the global plastic crisis.

The shortlist will be published on Thursday 7 September 2023 and the awards announced on Thursday 7 December.

Good luck to everyone involved!

Graduation

The campus will soon be filled with thousands of happy students and proud parents with Graduation just two short weeks away. Staff from across the University, led by colleagues in DSAA, are finalising arrangements alongside our main graduation services supplier, Graduation Attire. 

As always, these are big events in the university year with almost 7,700 students graduating with over 22,000 accompanied guests at 26 ceremonies from 18 to 26 July.

The ceremonies will continue to be held in the Guildhall, with all other graduation services being co-located in our “Graduation Village” centred around Ravelin Park and Ravelin Sports Centre. This will include the celebratory drinks reception and group photography in the park along with a fun photo booth hosted by the University’s Alumni team and a welcome tent for our international students. Students can collect their academic dress, have their formal photographs taken and pick up their award documents from Ravelin Sports Centre. At the same time the Students’ Union will be hosting fun activities and a variety of food vendors on Gun House Green.

We will also host two virtual graduation ceremonies on 28 July through our facilities at CCIXR in Eldon Building. The team has created a virtual Graduation Studio for our students to appear live on as part of the ceremony. 

We also continue to take a sustainable approach, including our graduation gowns made from 70% recycled polyester manufactured from recycled plastic waste, a digital order of candidates and reducing the use of single use plastic across all venues.

My thanks go to all colleagues who have worked tirelessly over many months to organise these events which are such important and joyful milestones for our students.

Upcoming staff events

This will be my last bulletin until the next academic year, but I and UEB colleagues will be available to answer your questions at the next All-Staff Briefing and Q&A which take place on: 

• Monday 10 July at 3.30pm
• Friday 15 September at 10.00am 

You can ask questions live during the session, or pre-submit using this form. 

I know many will be working over the summer period, but for those who are taking some time away I wish you a restful and peaceful break.