Financial Statements 2018/19
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FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2019 PROUD TO BE SHORTLISTED FOR U N I V E R S I T Y OF THE YEAR 2019 CONTENTS List of Board of Governors 3 Welcome 4-5 Financial Highlights 6 Strategic Report 7-21 Corporate Governance Statement 22-25 Responsibilities of the University’s Board of Governors 26-28 Independent Auditor’s Report 29-31 Statement of Principal Accounting Policies 32-35 Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income and Expenditure 36 Statement of Changes in Reserves 37 Balance Sheet 38 Cash Flow Statement 39 Notes to the Accounts 40-57 Principal Address and Advisors 58 2 ATTENDANCE GOVERNORS ATTENDANCE AT BOARD MEETINGS % Professor G Baldwin Vice-Chancellor, Ex-officio Governor Until 30 September 2019 100 Mr J Barfoot Staff Governor Until 15 February 2019 100 Mr S Bolton Independent Governor 100 Dr J Bonar Staff Governor From 1 August 2018 100 Ms. A Colley Independent Governor Until 31 July 2019 75 Mr P Cotton Independent Governor 100 Mr D Cowley Student Governor Until 11 July 2019 75 Ms G Davis Student Governor From 12 July 2019 25 Mr M Dixon Staff Governor From 1 August 2018 100 Mr N Duncan OBE Co-opted External Governor 50 Professor R Farwell CBE Independent Governor 100 Ms J Glastonbury Independent Governor 100 Mr G Holland Independent Governor Until 31 July 2019 100 Councillor S Kaur Co-opted External Governor 50 Mr J Rimmer Independent Governor From 1 August 2018 100 Ms L Samuels Independent Governor 75 Mr J Simpson Independent Governor 100 Dr J Stopp Independent Governor Until 31 July 2019 100 Captain E Tiller Independent Governor 25 Mr P Wake OBE RD Independent Governor From 1 August 2018 100 Clerk to the Governors Ms B Woolven 100 3 WELCOME FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF GOVERNORS AND THE VICE-CHANCELLOR We are delighted to introduce Solent University’s operating and a nursing simulation ward were also delivered in 2018. and financial review for 2018-2019, a year which has once Most importantly, improvements continued to be made in again witnessed significant change and development the academic performance of the University in the areas within the Institution. While the external context has been of student satisfaction, student achievement, international challenging, the university has maintained a surplus for the development, employability and research excellence. year of £1.4m (2018: £8.3m) and it is encouraging to see our reputation increase in response to an enhanced student The University is a leading university for the development experience that has resulted in significant league table rises of student business start-ups and its employer engagement and external recognition. and business interaction was underpinned by the ongoing success of its programme of continuing professional As an Institution which is first and foremost a University, development. When comparing earnings for Solent our priority is to maintain and enhance the experience and graduates against other institutions whose students had opportunities offered to our students and to safeguard the same prior educational attainment, seven of Solent’s high quality delivery for the future. Since the Spark, the subjects ranked in the top five, and 11 of the University’s new learning and teaching building that was successfully subjects ranked within the top 50% (according to data from delivered in 2015-2016, we have continued to transform the Longitudinal Education Outcomes, LEO). In the National our East Park Terrace campus. In 2017-2018 we further Student Survey, Solent had its largest ever response rate of improved the estate with redevelopments across the city, 86%, and had improvements in five survey measures. We including the refurbishments of Kimber Halls and Reginald remained above benchmark for ‘Overall satisfaction’ and the Mitchell building, as well as nursing facilities development in University’s scores were higher than or equal to the sector the summer of 2018. This year, 2018-19, the most significant in eight of the nine survey measures. Scores for Academic investment involved our new Sports Complex. We broke support, Learning community and Student voice were in the ground in September 2017 with the building being delivered top 30 in the sector (compared with 130 other institutions). in February 2019. The planning, design and appointment of contractors for the new Maritime Simulation Centre also We had our best year in terms of League Tables. Solent commenced in 2017 with the construction phase started improved in the THES European Teaching Ranking, the in August 2018 and finished at the end of March and fully Complete University Guide and saw substantial changes delivered in May 2019. Biomedical science laboratories in both the Good University Guide (from 100 to 85) and 4 The Guardian University Guide (81 to 73). In addition, This year saw the departure of our Vice-Chancellor, the University scored an overall four stars in the QS Professor Graham Baldwin the Vice-Chancellor. Graham Stars rating system; plus five stars in the categories of joined Solent in August 2014 and after five successful years teaching, employability, internationalisation, facilities and he left the University to take up a new position as Vice- inclusiveness; and four stars for its specialist provision. Chancellor of the University of Central Lancashire. He had led the University through challenging times and a fast In October 2018 Solent was the first University to have a full changing sector, working with us all to achieve significant Ofsted inspection of apprenticeship provision. The visit went successes across our vision and mission. Most notably, very well and resulted in the University receiving a ‘Good’ Solent has risen in all major league tables, received Research outcome, a very positive result for Solent and a testament to Degree Awarding Powers and has been nominated for the hard work of colleagues across the whole institution. The several Times Higher awards, most recently for the Times University was also audited to check our compliance with Higher University of the Year Awards 2019. the requirements of the Home Office UKVI (UK Visas and Immigration) in March 2019. This was an important event Graham will be succeeded by Professor Karen Stanton, with the potential to limit our ability to recruit international who has been appointed by the Board of Governors to students and staff and once again resulted in a positive join Solent at the beginning of February 2020. Professor outcome for Solent. Stanton joins Solent from her role as Vice-Chancellor at York St John University, where she has delivered clear strategic In fulfilment of its mission the University further increased leadership, driving improvements in the student experience the proportion of its recruitment from low participation and student outcomes, and providing strong external neighbourhoods and state schools. In the most recent representation and institutional sustainability. Access and Participation Plan 2019-2020 (approved by the Office for Students), Solent University continued to lead Internal change was accompanied by external the way in supporting students living in low participation developments, most notably the further developments neighbourhoods with a particular emphasis on BME, white within the Higher Education sector. Once again we saw working-class males and care leaver students. We have evidence of the impact of the removal of the student again set our sights high to further enhance this in future number cap with competition for students continuing to years, as we establish our new Access and Participation plan increase across the sector further underpinning the need to for 2020-2025. International partnerships increased and invest in developments as described above and to continue once again we hosted a number of delegations. The two to put our students at the heart of all we do. To that end, we most significant ones this year included the India Education further developed our student services and increased the Collaboration, where a group of 40 professionals from level of central support provided. Indian universities visited Solent in December 2018 and subsequently in May 2019 for the ‘International Faculty Despite a most successful year uncertainty remains as we Exposure & Immersion Programme’ on Academia, Business await the details of the Brexit negotiations. We are however and Culture. In September 2018 we hosted the delegation well placed, as a consequence of our strategy, to meet from the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime the emerging requirements with a focus on practice and University in Bangladesh, who then visited for the second application, or what we call “Real World Learning”. We will time in July 2019 when we signed a Memorandum of continue to work with stakeholders, employers and most Understanding. The University’s work with business and importantly our students to ensure that we are increasingly international partners along with a city centre presence recognised nationally and internationally whilst fulfilling our and large numbers of students makes a considerable role as a University for the City and the Solent Region. contribution to the local and regional economy. The University continued to implement its strategic plan “Building an excellent university” making further changes to its operating structure and all Schools had a successful year Phil Cotton as demonstrated by the academic achievements. In addition, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Board of Governors we further progressed our work to ensure the University’s long term