An overview

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An overview

• Support Staff Annual Conference 2009
• 2nd July 2009, The Victoria Rooms

Derek Pretty, Registrar and Secretary
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Our mission and aims as support staff

• Our mission to help make the University an
  international powerhouse of learning, discovery
  and enterprise
• Some of our key aims
• to deliver the highest possible standard of
  integrated support to colleagues and students
• to make the University a place where people want
  to work and study because they are valued,
  respected and fairly rewarded
• to ensure that what we do is efficient, cost
  effective and supports long-term sustainability

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The diversity and achievements of support staff

• I will talk about some of the many different
  kinds of support and service you provide I will
  also highlight a few of your achievements
• Describing them is not easy
• You tend to look after things which people notice
  only when they go wrong!
• The good news is that things do not go wrong very
  often!
• I am sorry if I do not mention you or your unit
• But...thank you anyway!

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Academic Support

• Enabling colleagues to undertake education,
  research, enterprise and engagement
• A successful QAA Institutional Audit
• Supporting a successful RAE outcome
• Supporting increased grant getting
• Guiding colleagues through research governance
  audits by MHRA Human Tissue Authority

5
Student Support

• Providing applicants, students and graduates with
  extra-curricular services and support
• Welcoming new students and helping them
  transition
• Supporting students with difficulties
• Getting approval of a new Access Agreement with
  OFFA
• Renewal of branch libraries learning facilities

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Professional Administrative Services

• Providing services that would otherwise have to
  be bought from professional service firms
• Helping the Students Union incorporate as a
  Charity
• Helping spin-out companies raise 25 million
• Planning and delivering Centenary celebrations
• Borrowing and managing money to fund development
  

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Professional Administrative Services

• Capturing, processing and maintaining important
  data and records
• Enabling and delivering on-line registration
• Promoting healthy living
• Helping to make the University a good place to
  work

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Governance Services

• Helping Council, Senate and the whole governance
  system to work effectively, remembering that we
  are a publicly funded charity
• Developing frameworks for dealing with incidents
  crises
• Developing a new Vision to articulate our plans
  and strategies

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Development of People, Buildings and Systems

• Preparing colleagues and teams for the challenges
  of leadership and change
• Managing a 50 million per annum capital
  programme
• Building new research facilities (Nanoscience)
• Developing and implementing new IT systems to
  improve services and processes (INFORMS, etc)

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Technical Operational Services

• Helping colleagues deliver research through High
  Performance Computing
• Managing the consequences on the ground of
  tighter fire regulation
• Protecting students staff from rising levels of
  crime and anti-social behaviour

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What is the context for next few years?

• End of the period of growth in tuition fees and
  research funding
• Turbulent external environment with economic and
  political uncertainty with limited upside
  expectations
• Major structural issues of our own to address
• Low surplus to income
• High overall staff cost compared with peers
• High relative ratio of support cost to academic
  cost
• Growing cost of pensions
• Need for significant investment in infrastructure
• Have to adjust our plans to meet these challenges

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Development of a new vision of support for the
academic endeavour

• To optimise the ratio of academic cost to support
  cost
• To optimise the time of academics for teaching,
  research and enterprise
• To provide consistent and cost effective
  administration and support across the University

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How will this be achieved?

• Individual process owners with clear
  responsibility, accountability and authority for
  the design, service quality and overall delivery
  objectives of each University process and IT
  system that support it
• Standardised processes and common and resilient
  systems across the University
• A renewed focus on delivering value for money and
  efficiency gains

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Welcomes Farewells

• Senior Team Changes
• Finance Ian Crawford Andy Nield
• Estates Simon Britton Patrick Finch
• Library Services Peter King Cathryn Gallacher
• Student Services Residences Alan Rump
• Deputy Registrar Director of Information
  Services Alison Allden
• Over 90 support staff colleagues retiring or
  taking voluntary severance

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In conclusion.

• A very big thank you to colleagues here and not
  here for their commitment and support