12/14 Engineering Professors’ Council: newsletter

this issue President’s report P.1 Our year so far… Chancellor’s Autumn Statement P.2 Perkins Review P.2 Annual Congress 2014 hosted by Recruitment and admissions forum P.3 the University of Glasgow Enrolments survey 2014/15 P.3 20th Anniversary Awards News of 20 th Anniversary Awards P.3 Submitted responses and evidence to: REF2014 – results round-up P.4 HOUSE OF LORDS Select Future events and membership round-up P.6 Committee on Science and EPC President Simon Hodgson presents Technology: Inquiry into impact of Sir John Parker with the President’s Prize immigration policy on STEM students. EPC Committee members called to give evidence President’s Report

HOUSE OF COMMONS It doesn’t seem 20 months since I accepted the Engineering Professors’ Council’s nomination Business, Innovation and Skills to become its President. It’s been an enormous honour to represent and support the nearly Committee’s inquiry into Business- 6,000 academic staff working in our member engineering departments. And that number is University collaboration still growing as we’ve welcomed several new members during my tenure – including the DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS Royal Academy of Engineering as our first corporate member. We’re also privileged to have INNOVATION AND SKILLS: a new patron: Sir John Parker GBE FREng – former President of the Royal Academy of proposals for long-term capital Engineering, recipient of our President’s Prize for services to engineering education in 2014. investment In my representational role, I’ve held meetings with the Department for Business, OfQual: Completing GCSE, AS and A Level Reform Innovation and Skills, sat on one of the Perkins Review Task and Finish groups (more of which elsewhere in this newsletter), attended meetings of the Parliamentary and Scientific DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS Committee at both the House of Lords and Buckingham Palace and initiated our 20th INNOVATION AND SKILLS: Science Anniversary award schemes. The student prize was so popular last year that I’m delighted to and Innovation Strategy 2014 say we’re repeating it this year, supported once again by the Incorporation of Hammermen UNIVERSITIES UK: Student funding of Glasgow – please do encourage your students to enter – there’s still time ! I’m also panel delighted to say that our Members’ Portal goes from strength to strength and I know that

Letter to Liam Byrne MP, Shadow members appreciate having the sector data at their fingertips (because you tell me so).

Minister for Higher Education But there’s much still to do before I hand over the baton to President-Elect Professor Parliamentary and Scientific Stephanie Haywood of the University of Hull. A number of the implementation projects Committee annual lunch and arising from the Perkins Review are being led by the EPC – including the development of a lecture portal for comprehensive information about postgraduate engineering programmes in

Currently underway: conjunction with UCAS and a review of innovative practice in incorporation of work Perkins Review: EPC Committee/ experience into degree programmes and the implications for professional accreditation. sub Committee members chairing I can’t finish without mentioning the Research Excellence Framework. We’ve provided a or participating in: • Development of a round-up of the results for engineering in this newsletter (and added it to the Members’ Postgraduate Portal for Portal) and there’ll be an opportunity to dissect and discuss the whole process and the engineering outcome at our Annual Congress. EPC Committee members Professors Sarah Spurgeon, • Review of professional Stephanie Haywood and Alison Hodge, all REF2014 panellists, will be running accreditation workshops…Congress will be held on April 14th/15th 2015 at Media City Salford – please do • Engagement with the Industry book via the website. I do hope to see as many of you as possible there so I may thank you Strategy Councils personally for your support during my term as President.

Professor Simon Hodgson

Chancellor’s Autumn Statement Perkins Review

“…Britain is raising its ambition. And Engineering community nowhere is that clearer than in our commits to maintain the commitment to science. long-term work initiated It is a personal priority of mine. Scientific by Perkins through advance is a human endeavour worthy of the Engineering the support in its own right. It is also crucial Future consortium. to our economic future..…” EPC Past President Professor Helen Atkinson FREng and As we mull over the results of the Research Excellence Framework which will determine Executive Director Susan Kay how HEFCE’s Quality-Related research fund will be allocated, we were all keen to hear what joined an impressive group at the Chancellor had to say about the Science Budget in his Autumn Statement at the Shell UK’s London beginning of this month. headquarters on 3rd There were some clues as to the priorities for the £1.1bn pa capital committed to science November, 2014 to launch for the next five years in announcements about new research facilities, many of which will Tomorrow’s Engineers week be located in the north of England reflecting the Government’s stated aspiration to 2014. Erik Bonino, Chairman rebalance the economy. But the Statement also confirmed the Chancellor’s plans to turn a of Shell UK and Vince Cable, surplus on the Government’s accounts by 2019 mainly through further public spending the Business Secretary, spoke cuts. No detailed budgets for Government departments from 2016 have yet been passionately about the need published, and, according to an article in Research Fortnight on 12th November, the to feed the pipeline of Minister for Universities, Science and Cities, Greg Clark, has declined to commit the next engineers to ensure we have Conservative Government to increasing the science budget or indeed to continue the 2010 sufficient to meet industry’s ring fence. So there seems to be a general consensus emerging that existing plans mean needs. They endorsed warmly cuts of around 30% to 40% everywhere apart from the NHS and schools. The Chancellor the Review of Engineering says that savings were made between 2010 and 2015 so it should be possible to make the Skills led by Professor John same order of savings again, leading to energetic debate about whether this is actually Perkins, Chief Scientific possible... Advisor to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, There was (ostensibly) better news on the subject of postgraduate loans, though. who also attended to launch Postgraduate funding is an issue on which the Engineering Professors’ Council has been his Progress Report which has working hard to raise up the agenda, particularly through our work with BIS on the Perkins brought together an array of Task and Finish group on Specialist Skills through which we’ve also kept a close eye on partners – professional progress with the HEFCE postgraduate funding pilot schemes for STEM subjects, the largest engineering institutions, proportion of which were focused on engineering. The Chancellor announced that up to universities, schools, further £10,000 would be made available for students under the age of 30, to fund postgraduate education colleges and study in any subject. Decisions about the final details of the system will be informed by businesses – to address the pilot schemes currently being funded by HEFCE and there will be a consultation before the need at every level from final system is agreed, with a view to implementing it in time for the start of the 2016/17 schools to postgraduate academic year. The Treasury says it is assuming repayment at rates higher than for current specialist skills. undergraduate loans, but lower than the current commercially available loans to help ensure that the majority will be paid in full. Concerns have been raised, though, about the The Engineering Professors’ fact that the postgraduate loans are to be repaid “concurrently” with undergraduate loans Council leads the work, on (putting an age limit of 30 on them will have exacerbated that…) leading the Institute for behalf of Education for Fiscal Studies to warn that those taking out postgraduate loans could, in effect, face a Engineering, on postgraduate marginal tax rate of 50% once income tax and National Insurance were included. We are specialist skills. planning to work with the Industry Strategy Councils to explore the possibility of obtaining Professor Perkins’ progress industrial financial support for those studying postgraduate degrees in engineering subjects report is available from the as the rate of unemployment is so much lower for engineering graduates compared with Department for Business, other disciplines that the risk of non-repayment is consequently lower and so could be Innovation and Skills and a supported by an interest rate subsidy, for example. Colleagues at Cranfield University have fuller account of the progress been piloting a loan scheme for postgraduate STEM students – and you can read about it in of the Perkins Task and Finish Annex G of the Perkins Review’s Progress Report: http://bit.ly/169HLQ1. We’ll keep you up Groups is available from to date with any further progress. Education for Engineering.

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Winners of inaugural Recruitment and Admissions th The annual Recruitment and Forum 2014 20 Anniversary Admissions Forum took place at the Awards Institution of Mechanical Engineers “…a great chance to swap experiences on 10th November 2014 convened by and I enjoyed the short sessions from As one of the initiatives to new EPC Recruitment and Admissions organisations working with schools – I’ll

celebrate our 20th Anniversary sub Committee chair, Professor Mike definitely be getting in contact with (in our current form), we Bramhall from Sheffield Hallam them” Feedback from delegate offered our members the University. opportunity to bid for funding for public engagement projects. Colleagues from Sheffield Hallam, Imperial College, the Engineering Development Trust, While proposals could FabLab, Women in SET and Primary Engineer joined delegates to share details of their encompass completely new activities to encourage the study of engineering. We were then joined by Dr Paul ideas and activities, we were Wakeling of the who had been asked by HEFCE to evaluate the funded also looking for ideas that built postgraduate pilot schemes to improve diversity and participation in master’s-level STEM on existing initiatives and had education. We rounded off the day with workshop sessions on current perspectives and worked well locally or regionally issues for admissions tutors and the increasing role of placements and internships in but which might, with some attracting students to engineering programmes. We’re grateful to the National Centre for additional funding and/or Universities and Business, BP, NTR, enginterns and the universities of Leeds, Coventry, collaboration with other Sheffield Hallam and Trinity St David for supporting those sessions. members, extend the reach and impact to the national level. Four candidates were shortlisted and invited to EPC Enrolments Survey Congress 2014 to pitch their 2014/15 proposals to delegates who then voted on those they felt “80% of the university engineering best met the brief. departments that responded said that their intake of UK and EU Delegates decided to make 2 undergraduates had either awards – to Dr Catherine Hobbs increased or stayed the same in of the University of the West of 2014/15…” England with science policy

colleague Laura Fogg-Rogers We also provided a summary of the and Dr Emma Carter of the results of the EPC’s latest survey of the University of Sheffield. You enrolment experience of member institutions and we’re grateful to the very many may read summaries of all four members who completed the survey. While we can’t claim that the figures are precise - proposals here: its intention is to give members a sense of their position relative to national position for http://epc.ac.uk/engaging-in- planning purposes – it does attract a lot of external interest and seems to be becoming engineering-awards/ and the widely recognised as the early barometer of recruitment levels to engineering. While successful applicants will be UCAS provide applications data for undergraduates, there can be a time lag, particularly at updating future Congress sub-discipline level, and there’s no similar service for post-graduates so we tend to have to delegates on their progress. wait for the official HESA statistics on student numbers which are published up to 18

months after the event. …and for your students… We’re delighted to be offering, There was an increase in home/EU undergraduate students across the sector as a whole, once again, a prize for students with undergraduate applications to engineering for 2014/15 entry up 10.4% compared (in collaboration with the with 2013/14 and 17.1% compared with 2012/13. But as we know, it’s the overseas Incorporation of Hammermen postgraduate numbers which have been declining in recent years so it was a pleasant of Glasgow). The winner will surprise to see what appears to be some stabilisation amongst this group. More than receive £1,000 and the three quarters of those responding said their overseas postgraduate numbers had stayed opportunity to speak at the EPC the same or increased: of those saying their numbers were higher, over a quarter reported Congress at Salford in April that they were more than 10% higher. Members can access the full survey presentation 2015. For more details, go to: (along with the other presentations from the Recruitment and Admissions Forum) at: http://epc.ac.uk/20th- http://epc.ac.uk/recruitment-and-admissions-forum-2014/ and access all the latest data anniversary-awards-2015/ on applications and student numbers at: http://epc.ac.uk/services-2/.

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As Patrick McGhee wrote in the Guardian a few days REF2014 round-up Quick facts…

ago, “We should not underestimate the capacity of the Early Christmas presents..…or results to stimulate research endeavour in its own right. was it “Bah humbug”? EPC was a “nominating body” I was impressed by the advances in set theory achieved for the Research Excellence by some university PR departments in 2008 when they created new branches of Framework (REF). mathematics by promoting groupings that contained only the top 10 elements thereof…But we should also watch out for the “Woodstock effect” in which 90% of researchers in a Two of our committee department will claim credit for the 5% of work classified in the four-star “world leading” members were panellists for category. They can’t all have been there…” General Engineering, one for Electrical and Electronic Enough with the levity…this is a serious business. The first clues as to the outcome of Engineering, Metallurgy and REF14 dropped onto Vice-Chancellors’ desks on 16th December with the average grade Materials and former EPC profiles for each Unit of Assessment. This was followed on 17th with the full dataset…an President , Professor Tony Excel spreadsheet which has been sorted, pivoted, cut and pasted in offices up and down Unsworth of the University of the land to try and make sense of what it means for each university. The EPC Office has Durham, was an assessor. been no less attentive and you can check out for yourself the results of our endeavours by logging on to the Members’ Portal (contact us if you need your password again…) and Professors Sarah Spurgeon, downloading our “comparator” tool for the engineering units of assessment. We’ll be Stephanie Haywood and Alison doing more work on this in the coming weeks – especially as details of the funding Hodge will be providing some implications emerge, but for now, the highlights… insight at Congress 2015 in April about their experiences as panellists…

What does the outcome look Comparison of RAE08 and REF14 outcomes for For institutional-level like compared with 2008? engineering comparisons, together with We can’t, of course, make a sub profile information, do 100 direct comparison with the last take a look at the Datasets and assessment exercise, RAE08. First 90 Analysis section on the there was the inclusion of 80 Members’ Portal. “impact” rather than “esteem” 70 for REF14 and second, the Units of Assessment were organised 60 quite differently. The number of 50 Units of Assessment for 40 engineering was reduced from 6 1 30 to 4 . The chart on the right, submission of Percentage however shows what the overall 20 grade profile was in 2008, 10 compared with that of REF2014 0 by calculating the “staff adjusted 4* 3* 2* 1* U/C mean” for the 6 engineering- RAE08 (4,458 Cat A 17 45 30 7 1 related units in 2008 and the 4 in FTE) REF14 (5,060 Cat A 1 2014. 25 57 15 2 0 2008 engineering Units of Assessment: FTE) Electrical and electronic engineering; General Engineering and Mineral & We might have expected an increase in 4* and 3* work as a proportion of submissions as Mining Engineering; Chemical engineering; a result of universities being increasingly selective owing to the way the HEFCE quality- Civil engineering; related (“QR”) funding is now allocated (only 4* and 3* work is funded and is weighted in Mechanical, Aeronautical and the proportion 3:1). This, together with the stringent funding regime since 2008 with Manufacturing Engineering ; reports of significant reductions in staff numbers in some areas, might have led us to Metallurgy and materials believe that we would see a reduction in the number of staff submitted. Not for 2014 engineering Units of Assessment: engineering it seems. 5,060 category A full time equivalent staff were submitted across Aeronautical, Mechanical, Chemical & the four engineering Units of Assessment in 2014, compared with only 4,458 across six in Manufacturing Engineering ; 2014. The Higher Education Statistics agency will shortly publish the number of “REF Electrical & Electronic Engineering Metallurgy & Materials; Civil and eligible” staff – another difference compared with the 2008 exercise when it was not Construction Engineering; General possible to tell what proportion of staff were entered. Engineering

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Aeronautical, mechanical, chemical and What about the individual Units of manufacturing engineering Assessment?

What about funding? 100 We’ve shown here an analysis of the 90 average profiles for each engineering 80 Unit of Assessment at Overall level. (The There’s no news about funding 70 sub profile outcomes – Outputs, Impact yet. 60 and Environment may be viewed in the 50 analysis on the Members’ Portal). The Currently, HEFCE distributes 40 Percentage of submission 30 Unit of Assessment profile is compared quality-related research funding 20 with the average profile for Main Panel B (“QR”) by applying the 10 (of which the engineering Units of percentage of work judged to 0 4* 3* 2* 1* U/C Assessment were part) and the average be 3* and 4* to the number of Aeronautical, profile for ALL Units of Assessment. staff submitted – and there’s a Mechanical, weighting of 3 applied to 4* Chemical and 25 57 17 1 0 Manufacturing work. This weighting has Engineering changed a couple of times over Main Panel B 26 57 15 2 0 the period since 2008. All UoAs 30 46 20 3 1 Immediately post-RAE08, 2* work was also funded and Electrical and electronic engineering, there’s been an increasing Civil and construction engineering metallurgy and materials

concentration towards 4* with adjustments to the weighting. 100 100 90 We’ll aim to create some 90 80 80 simulations in the coming 70 70 weeks on what the outcome 60 60 might mean for institutions’ 50 50

funding under various 40 Percentage of submission

40 30 Percentage of submission scenarios. The 2014/15 30 20 mainstream QR allocation 20 10 0 amounted to just under £132M 10 4* 3* 2* 1* U/C for the engineering Units of 0 Electrical and Assessment. 4* 3* 2* 1* U/C Electronic Civil and Engineering, 25 62 11 2 0 Construction 24 56 16 3 1 Metallurgy and Co-incidentally …HM Treasury Engineering Materials published its strategy - delayed Main Panel B 26 57 15 2 0 Main Panel B 26 57 15 2 0 from the Autumn Statement - All UoAs 30 46 20 3 1 All UoAs 30 46 20 3 1 “Plan for Growth – science and innovation” on 17th December – Quick stats round-up the day before the public General Engineering announcement of the REF Of the 5,060 Category A staff submitted results. While its tone is in 2014: reassuring, with a General 100 . 1,152 were in Aeronautical, 90 Election in the offing it makes Mechanical, Chemical and no specific commitments to 80 Manufacturing Engineering across 25 70 continuing the ring fence on submissions. the Science Budget. Even more 60 . 1,071 were in Electrical and 50 disappointingly, in some ways, Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy it fails to set long-term goals for 40 and Materials across 37 submissions. 30 science and engineering . 390 were in Civil and Construction Percentage of submission investment to create stability, 20 Engineering across 14 submissions. 10 something the EPC has . 2,447 were in General Engineering 0 consistently called for. across 62 submissions. 4* 3* 2* 1* U/C General . 26 56 16 2 0 83% of submission s in engineering Engineering met the standard of 3* or 4* Main Panel B 26 57 15 2 0 compared with 76% in all disciplines. All UoAs 30 46 20 3 1

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Get involved… Upcoming events

Date Venue Location Notes

January, PHEE/ Institution Mechanical and 2014 PHOMME of electrical/electronic (EPC Sectoral Mechanical sectors …we’ve a number of Groups) Joint Engineers, To register: Conference London http://epc.ac.uk/phee/ surveys, consultations and working groups in which to get involved… 14/15 April, Engineering University of All welcome 2015 Professors’ Salford at http://epc.ac.uk/events/ep OfQual consultation Council Media City, c-congress-2015/ on GCSE reform Congress2015 Manchester We’ll be responding to the recently-opened consultation Members on reforms around the assessment of practical work in The following universities/organisations are all current members of the Engineering GCSE science. Let us have your Professors’ Council. For university members, membership provides all academic staff in views: engineering departments with access to EPC resources and initiatives. Our team of only 2 http://www.smartsurvey.co highly flexible staff collaborate with you and a whole host of other organisations to ensure .uk/s/OFQUALGCSE we’re delivering value for your subscription. If you have ideas about other information and support you’d like to receive from us, please let us know. Postgraduate portal Royal Academy of Engineering Harper Adams University The University of Oxford One of the projects which has University of Aberdeen Heriot-Watt University The University of Plymouth arisen from the work of the Aston University University of Hertfordshire The University of Portsmouth Perkins Task and Finish Groups Bangor University The University of Huddersfield Queen Mary University of London is the development of a trusted University of Bath The University of Hull The University of Reading single source of information for University of Bedfordshire Imperial College of Science, The Robert Gordon University postgraduate engineering Queen's University of Belfast Technology and Medicine The University of Salford education. As UCAS has University of Birmingham The Sheffield Hallam University Kingston University The University of Sheffield recently stated its intention to Bournemouth University University of Bradford The University of Lancaster The University of Southampton launch a postgraduate University of Brighton Leeds Beckett University University of South Wales information portal and University of Bristol The University of Leeds Staffordshire University identified engineering as one Brunel University The The University of Strathclyde of the three disciplines to be The University of Cambridge The University of Lincoln The University of Surrey covered in their first wave of Cardiff University Liverpool John Moores University The University of Sussex work, we have joined forces to University of Chester The University of Liverpool Teesside University work with them to develop City University London South Bank University University of Wales, Trinity St David appropriate, comprehensive Coventry University University of Derby Manchester Metropolitan University of Ulster and engaging content. We University of Durham University University College London have a number of members on University of East London The University of Manchester The University of Warwick our working group and asked Edinburgh Napier University The University of Newcastle-upon- University of the West of England, VCs to identify a liaison University of Edinburgh Tyne Bristol contact at each member University of Essex The University of Northumbria at The University of the West of institution – if you haven’t University of Exeter Newcastle Scotland done so yet, please provide Glasgow Caledonian University The University of Nottingham The University of Westminster The Nottingham Trent University The University of Wolverhampton details of a contact here: The University of Glasgow Glyndŵr University The Open University The University of York http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk University of Greenwich Oxford Brookes University /s/PGPORTAL .

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