Sustainable institutions ensure high quality of governance and management for institutions for delivering long-term and financial and environmentally sustainable interactions
Sustainable institutions ensure high quality of governance and management for institutions delivering long-term and financial and environmentally sustainable interactions - (SFC Aim 7) The University sets high standards for governance. Alumni, academic and non-academic staff, students and external non-executive members are all directly represented on Court and its sub-Committees. The University’s transparent and inclusive governance structure ensures that all voices on campus are consulted and have the opportunity to take an active role in University governance both through Court and through the Academic Council. Our Court, for example, has more student representative members than any other Scottish university as well as representatives directly elected by the academic and non-academic staff of the University. We have considerable concerns that the Government's proposals for legislation in the Higher Education Governance Xxxx will reduce the inclusivity and effectiveness of these governance structures, replacing directly elected staff representatives with nominees of interest groups. Student inclusion provides for a contextualisation of University decision-making processes regarding learning and teaching and other areas of policy. In turn, the Students’ Association Board includes a senior member of University staff nominated by the Principal’s Office. A staff member from Student Services sits on and supports the Students’ Representative Council’s (SRC) Wellbeing Committee. Student Services work very closely with the Students’ Association Wellbeing Committee and other student-led support groups such as Nightline or Student Minds. The University and Students Association jointly deliver training to an extensive network of class representatives. Sustainability The financial sustainability of the University continues to present a challenge in the current financial climate. With no inflation on RUK fees, cuts to SFC funding for research, caps on the number of home/EU students and increasing competition in the global student market, times have never been as financially challenging for the HE sector. The University of St Xxxxxxx has worked hard over the last few years to achieve its Outcome Agreement targets, indeed exceeding these in most areas, whilst increasing its ability to accommodate increasing student numbers in the face of ever-increasing demand. The continuing restrictions on places for Scottish students resulting from current funding arrangements are regrettable. The financial ...
Sustainable institutions. Fife College has set a target to reduce its total annual carbon footprint by 1026 tCO2e by the end of academic year 2018/19 (based on current emission factors at the time of writing); this equates to a 20% reduction but based upon the baseline footprint year of 2013/14 and to be delivered by 2020. Reductions will be achieved through a range of projects including energy, fleet and awareness raising initiatives. Furthermore, Fife College has opted to report to Scottish Government on progress made in 2015/16 ahead of this being mandatory from autumn 2016. Fife College is in the process of identifying and appraising operating and capital budgets since merger and a specific budget relating to carbon management is still to be realised. It is anticipated at the time of writing the Carbon Management Plan (CMP) (Appendix 5) however, that projects will be identified, appraised, and prioritised on the basis of their potential impact and their projected return on investment. The intention is to create a sustainable investment schedule over the next five years. Any funds will be invested in a range of initiatives such as lighting upgrades, boiler replacements, improvement of heating and lighting controls, analysis of energy consumption through M&T software, timetabling and asset rationalisation. The CMP will continue to focus on the following areas: • Upgrade to Efficiency – continuing upgrading inefficient buildings and replacing inefficient appliances. • Build Better – all new buildings should be sustainably designed and resource efficient. • Move to clean power – purchase or generation of electricity from renewable sources. • Expand Transportation Alternatives – making it easy to get around with less fuel. • Implement Green Purchasing – procurement of products that use less energy, last longer and are good for the environment. • Institutional Conservation – create a culture of conservation awareness across the organisation The CMP is viewed as a ‘live’ document and it is envisaged that there may be changes on an annual basis as Fife College’s estate changes and planning assumptions become a reality. To ensure that it remains ‘fit for purpose’ to deliver targeted carbon savings, the plan will be reviewed on an annual basis. This process will be overseen by the Carbon Management Team and coordinated by the Building Technical Services Manager. The review will examine a number of areas including: progress towards overall carbon reduction target; progress with identif...
Sustainable institutions. The university is a well-governed institution which is compliant with the Scottish Code of HE Governance and is currently progressing the necessary changes to its statutory instrument and other governance documents. The oversight and challenge afforded by the Board as a critical friend enables the university to develop its financial resilience and commitment to sustainability which is articulated in more detail later in this Agreement. As part of the process for developing this Outcome Agreement, the narrative and targets included in this document have been considered, in depth, by the university’s Academic Council. This involves elected student representatives. OUTCOME AGREEMENT 2019 - 20 / 2021 - 22 ACCESS TO EDUCATION Access to Education The university is proud of its record of affording access to higher education in the north-east of Scotland. The university’s achievements in access are significant. The university has the highest population of students with a disclosed disability of all universities in Scotland and has one of the highest BME intakes (larger than the proportion of the local school leaving population). The university’s record for providing access to learning for care experienced learners is strong. Student retention for these groups of students is above the Scottish sector average. OUTCOME AGREEMENT 2019 - 20 / 2021 - 22 OUTCOME AGREEMENT 2019 - 20 / 2021 - 22 ACCESS TO EDUCATION ‘THE UNIVERSITY HAS THE HIGHEST POPULATION OF STUDENTS WITH A DISCLOSED DISABILITY OF ALL UNIVERSITIES IN SCOTLAND.’ The university’s sector-leading partnership with NESCol enables one of Scotland’s largest cohorts of articulating students to enrol with advanced standing each year in the university. This partnership has individual course level agreements with the vast majority of the university’s provision. This is supplemented with agreements with individual colleges out of region in subject areas where recruitment to NESCol has been traditionally lower. Over the period of this Outcome Agreement, the university will intensify its collaboration with existing partners to establish new articulation routes. The university will also extend its network for partner colleges and review the circumstances of the university’s non-articulating HN entrants. Nevertheless the headcount targets for articulation with advanced standing in this Outcome Agreement are very slightly lower than in previous years. In part, this reflects increased competition for articulating students ...
Sustainable institutions. The University’s Environmental Policy and its Sustainable Development Policy were refreshed in autumn 2014. Our current carbon management plan aims to achieve a reduction of 30% of 2008 levels by 2016. We are currently developing our management information in this area with a view to providing a more comprehensive report in future agreements. We are members of EAUC. Our Estates Strategy confirms our commitment to embedding sustainable development principles into all of our procurement procedures, design and construction projects. We are in the process of refreshing our Financial Strategy and Investment Policy to support the delivery of key projects.
Sustainable institutions. The region faces significant challenges as a result of the reform agenda in moving to a regionalised structure and approach at time when funding is being reduced. The table below exemplifies this by showing main grant and fee-waiver grant funding from 2010/11 to 2012/13 for GCSP colleges. Figure 17 - SFC Main Grant and Fee-Waiver Funding Allocations to GCSP Colleges 2010/11 to 2012/13 2010/11* 2011/12** 2012/13*** % Difference Between 2010/11 and 2012/13 Anniesland College £9,751,654 £8,733,002 £7,999,863 -18% Cardonald College £14,421,649 £12,915,172 £11,830,939 -18% City of Glasgow College £33,497,505 £29,998,375 £27,480,001 -18% Xxxx Xxxxxxxx College £7,888,093 £7,064,108 £6,471,073 -18% Langside College £10,537,765 £9,436,996 £8,644,757 -18% North Glasgow College £9,189,041 £8,229,159 £7,538,318 -18% Stow College £8,167,008 £7,313,887 £6,699,884 -18% Glasgow Region £93,452,716 £83,690,698 £76,664,835 -18% * Source: SFC Circular SFC/14/2010;** Source: SFC Circular SFC/10/2011;*** Source: SFC Circular SFC/02/2012 In light of this challenging financial context, maintaining institutional sustainability through an efficient, regional college structure is critical to meeting the needs of the region and its learners. The Scottish Funding Council has confirmed that, at present, all seven GCSP colleges are in “good” financial health, have cash reserves and anticipate that they will be able to set a balanced budget for 2012/13 which should ensure that, for that period, the financial health across Glasgow is not diminished. Appendix 5 lists key performance indicator categories for GCSP colleges. Individual college Risk Registers identify risk areas and common themes in the Glasgow registers are: The need to develop robust plans to avoid disruption to services following a major incident such as floor and fire. Concerns around the ability of each college to maintain high quality learning in an environment of significant budget cuts. All seven colleges are recognised by Investors in People for their excellent staff development programmes and continued investment in the development of college staff will aim to maintain high quality of provision. Over recent years most of the Further Education Estate in Glasgow which was recognised as not being fit for purpose and inefficient to maintain has been replaced by state of the art, modern learning centres. Now only City of Glasgow and Stow College deliver learning and teaching and buildings which, in the main, are dated. In...
Sustainable institutions. Objective Activities Timescale
Sustainable institutions. Ensure high quality of governance and management for institutions delivering long-term and financially and environmentally sustainable interactions Introduction The university currently meets all but one of the principles of good governance set out in the Scottish Code of HE Governance. Through the approval of the university’s strategy, associated strategic statements (which outline the university’s ambitions around particular themes) as well as the development of a business plan linked to the financial forecast which provides details on how the university will implement the university’s strategy the Board of Governors have clear ownership of institutional sustainability. The strategy of the university is measured through ten key performance indicators, against which an annual report of progress is compiled. As of December 2014, the Board will uses five national performance measures within their suite of key performance indicators (student success, proportion of SDUE from MD20/40 backgrounds, student satisfaction retention of students and student destinations). An update on progress against the major milestones and their associated actions within the business plan is considered by the Board at each of their meetings. The Board also receives information about progress against the university’s operating plan, which contains detail on activities to achieve specific milestones. A procedure that will allow RGU Estates to invest in energy and carbon reduction projects using funding provided by the Scottish and UK Governments has been approved by the senior management team. This funding is in the form of loans to be paid back from the savings generated through a reduction in energy consumption. The Estates department is driving forward this initiative and has identified two initial projects that have the potential to reduce RGU’s carbon footprint by 266 tonnes every year. The first project to receive funding and completed was an exercise in draught proofing single glazed style windows in a 1960’s constructed building. The funding allowed the installation of a newly developed expanded foam solution which sealed the drafts in the windows without impacting on their operation. Expected savings of £7,971 and 44.3T carbon per annum are currently being verified. Due to a change in the Salix funding procedures, the main project identified (savings of 266 tonnes per annum) has not yet been implemented but is still under review A number of campaigns which were implemented ...
