Vice-Chancellor's Report to Council
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Vice-Chancellor’s Report to Council – March 2005 As usual in my reports to Council I highlight some of the matters which are of particular importance at present. The report is rather long, but this reflects the range of current issues. In the meeting itself I propose to concentrate on some of these, but I shall of course be happy to respond to questions and comments on any of them. Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Collaboration Welsh-Medium provision Planning Round Future levels of funding Admissions and recruitment The University of Wales Other matters Pro Vice-Chancellor At its last meeting Council agreed to the proposal to appoint a third Pro Vice-Chancellor, and Senate recommends to Council that Professor Aled Jones be appointed. This will give us greater resilience and enable us to work on the wide range of initiatives which are important to us. The distribution of duties has now been finalised, and the arrangements are summarised in the minutes of Senate. Research The research monitoring meetings with departments took place in January. In them we emphasised the need to formulate departmental research strategies, which are consistent, of course, with the university’s overall strategy, and which address issues such as the research environment within the department, the coherence of research planning and the relationship with overall research objectives in the discipline. Emphasis was placed on the approach to RAE 2008, external research income and collaborative links. It was agreed that an external opinion would be sought in the case of most departments. We now have some information about the way in which RAE 2008 will operate, but much remains to be decided. The details are included in the report of PARC to Council. In summary, each submission will be assessed in relation to the quality of cited outputs, the research environment and indicators of esteem. The assessment will be on a scale of 0–4 *, a quality of a 2* output corresponding to ‘international recognition’, 3* to ‘international excellence’ and 4* to the very best work in the subject. A single profile will be compiled in which the quality of research output will have a weighting of between 50% and 90%, the detail to be determined by the individual panel. The sub- panels have already started to meet to formulate their assessment criteria and working methods, and we expect a consultation exercise on them during the summer. When the guidance from panels and sub-panels has been finalised it will be necessary to work towards deciding on whom to submit to the RAE – and indeed which individual outputs to submit. The changes that have been introduced mean that it is especially difficult to assess the likely financial outcome. I am concerned about the level of external research income. There has been a significant decline over the last few years, though there are signs of some improvement over the last few months. The competition for funding is becoming increasingly fierce, but we must make an effort to increase the number and range of applications. Professor Pykett (as the PVC with responsibility for research) and I had a very useful meeting with the Faculty Promoters of Research a few weeks ago, and we shall work together to stimulate and support activity. The meeting highlighted, inter alia, the importance of research leadership within departments. An important element of the research environment or ‘culture’ is the training of research students. We have resolved to establish a Research Degrees Board, which will oversee all aspects of the recruitment, supervision and assessment of research students. I have asked Professor Pykett to convene a working party to investigate ways in which we can increase the number of research students and give greater prominence to this aspect of our activity. In this context I am very pleased to report on a recent visit of a panel from the ESRC Postgraduate Training Board. We expect their formal response in a few weeks time, but the informal feedback at the end of the visit was very positive, and I should like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the preparations for the visit. Collaboration I am pleased to say that our discussions with the University of Wales Bangor have led to the submission to HEFCW of a bid under the Reconfiguration and Collaboration Fund to establish a Research Partnership. We are now waiting for the Funding Council to arrange to meet us to discuss the proposal further. The proposal is to establish a strategic and sustainable research partnership which will raise the universities’ international profile and enhance their competitiveness in an increasingly selective environment. The partnership is designed to extend the range of available expertise and increase ‘effective mass’. One of the objectives is to strengthen the quality of research output. Another is to create a structural framework which will facilitate collaborative research and joint grant proposals, so that we can compete more effectively for external research funding from the Research Councils and other funders. The partnership with Bangor is not to the exclusion of other links, and useful discussions are also taking place with a range of collaborators on a number of possibilities (and not only research). Welsh-Medium provision We have agreed with Bangor that we will prepare a submission to the Reconfiguration and Collaboration Fund in the area of Welsh medium provision also. This is currently in draft form, and I shall ask Professor Aled Jones to take this forward. There have been several other initiatives. The postgraduate scholarship scheme proposed by the Assembly Government has now been launched, and we have submitted five applications (the maximum permitted number); we have invited expressions of interest from departments in the Fellowship scheme. Both will help address the need to ensure a supply of academics who can teach through the medium of Welsh, and will contribute to the requirement to develop appropriate Welsh medium material. They involve a commitment from the university in relation to long term sustainability. The new Pro Vice-Chancellor will have explicit responsibility for Welsh-medium provision, and the appointment of a Director of Welsh Medium Provision is currently being made. The Director will have responsibility for advising departments, coordinating provision, leading its development and monitoring it. He/she will also have responsibility for managing on behalf of Planning Group the resources available from external sources (such as the Funding Council’s development fund) and the university itself. In developing our Welsh-medium provision we are mindful of the target set by the WAG that, in the sector as a whole, 7% of students follow some part of their courses through the medium of Welsh by 2010. Aberystwyth will play its part in helping the sector work towards this ambitious target, but it must be recognised that the student population is heavily weighted towards the South-East of Wales, where this little provision at present. Planning Round We expect to receive information about this year’s recurrent grant from HEFCW a few days before Council meets. The increase in the grant to the sector as a whole is about 3.5%. However, U.W.A. was protected last year by the ‘safety net’ following the withdrawal of research funding from departments rated below 4 in the RAE. Using the true base line and taking into account some reduction in the minor volume measures for research funding, the expectation is that the grant to U.W.A. will increase by something of the order of 2% in cash terms. As members of Council know, our costs increase by around 4.5% per annum. Overall therefore we will have the very difficult task of ensuring that we achieve our financial targets. The Planning Round will be especially difficult this year, not only for this reason, but also because yet again it will be necessary to move resources from departments in deficit to those in surplus. Some departments have a very large surplus in the Resource Allocation System and a few have large deficits. However, there is a larger number of less acute deficits which, nevertheless are significant when summed. At the same time we wish to provide as much support as possible to areas of research excellence and those demonstrating potential. Future levels of funding Universities in England will be charging variable fees in 2006, but this will not, of course, be the case in Wales. The commission, chaired by Teresa Rees, that was established by the WAG to provide advice on the fee regime and system of student support in Wales from 2007 has now submitted its interim report. It has not identified significant sources of income other than direct funding from WAG and fees. It emphasises that the universities in Wales must be able to compete on approximately equal terms with their counterparts elsewhere in the UK. The additional income from variable fees is significant – corresponding to up to a third of the resource available for teaching. If funding is insufficient, we shall not have the resources to make the necessary investment in maintaining and developing provision, and it will be difficult to recruit and retain staff of high quality neither would we be able to establish a bursary scheme. Our competitive position would suffer over quite a short timescale, and this would impact directly on the student experience and our research capacity. The uncertainty in Wales is a matter of serious concern. This affects prospective students, since we are unable to give them the guidance which they seek. Moreover, in order to be able to plan ahead we need to know with some degree of certainty what the level of funding is likely to be; in particular we need this information in order to inform our investment decisions ahead of the RAE.