Council Minutes 02 April 2020

Minutes Of The Cardiff University Council Held On Thursday 2nd April 2020 By Skype At 2.00pm

Present:  Professor Stuart Palmer (Chair) [except for Minute 1765], Professor Colin Riordan, Professor Rudolf Allemann, Dr Carol Bell, Mr Ricardo Calil, Mr Tomos Evans, Ms Judith Fabian, Professor Dame Janet Finch, Mr Alastair Gibbons, Professor Kim Graham, Mr Michael Hampson, Professor Mary Heimann, Professor Karen Holford, Ms Jan Juillerat, Mr Steven Luke, Ms Lin Phillips, Mr John Shakeshaft, Mr David Simmons, Judge Ray Singh, Dr Janet Wademan, Mrs Agnes Xavier-Phillips, Ms Jackie Yip.

Attendees:  Professor Gary Baxter, Mr John Britton, Ms Katy Dale, Mr Thomas Hay, Ms Julia Lofthouse, Mrs Susan Midha, Ms Claire Morgan, Ms Alex Payne, Ms TJ Rawlinson, Ms Karin Russell (Minutes), Mrs Claire Sanders, Professor Damian Walford Davies, Mr Richard Walters, Mr Rob Williams and Mr Simon Wright.

Apologies:  Mr Paul Baston, Mr Len Richards

1754 Apologies For Absence

The above listed apologies were noted and the meeting was confirmed to have met quorum.

In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Council Members agreed that a letter would be sent to Len Richards on behalf of Council to say thank you for the work being undertaken in the NHS.

1755 Welcome And Preliminaries

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting, explaining the participation and etiquette rules for the meeting.

Noted

1755.1 Particular welcome was extended to Julia Lofthouse, Interim Deputy Secretary and General Counsel and Claire Morgan, Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education and Students.

Interim University Secretary and Chief Operating Officer

1755.2 An update on the arrangements for the role of University Secretary and Chief Operating Officer following Deborah Collins’ recent resignation, were provided by the Vice-Chancellor as follows:
.1 that the short-term arrangements were to divide the duties for the Chief Operating Officer as follows:

• .1.1 Estates and Commercial Services would move to the Chief Financial Officer, Rob Williams, who would have line management and budgetary responsibility for these Directorates, in addition to his current responsibilities;
• .1.2 Claire Sanders, Director of Communications and Marketing, would act as Interim Chief Operating Officer, with line management and budgetary responsibility for these areas while also retaining her existing Directorate;
• .1.3 it was anticipated that this arrangement would continue for approximately six months, until the University was operating in business as usual;

.2 In regard to the Deputy Secretary and General Counsel role, Rashi Jain would act as Acting University Secretary and would be joining the University from early May; Rashi will report to both the Vice-Chancellor and to the Chair of Council;
.3 Additionally, Richard Walters, Interim Head of Governance Services, would remain in post until the end of May to ensure continuity in this function.

Deputation

1755.3 the Chair of Council notified Council Members that a request had been received from Professor Julian Gould Williams for a Deputation to be received at a future meeting of Council on behalf of the ‘Professors@Cardiff’ group, to raise their concern about staff perceptions of the senior leadership team; it was agreed this would be received at the July meeting of Council.

Ordinance Amendments

1755.4 the Chair invited members to raise a request to discuss further, any, or all, of the proposed amendments to the University Ordinances as outlined in the three papers under agendum item 14, otherwise the amendments would be deemed approved; it was noted that the amendments had been discussed and endorsed  by Governance Committee for approval by Council;

1755.5    no requests were received for further discussion of the Ordinance Amendments.

Resolved

1755.6 to approve the amendments as outlined in papers 19/514B ‘Ordinance Amendments - Remuneration Committee ToR’, 19/515B ‘Ordinance Amendments - Renaming the School of Earth & Ocean Sciences’, and 19/517B ‘Ordinance Amendments - University Awards & Progress Committee ToR’.

1756       Declarations Of Interest

Noted

1756.1 that in relation to Minute 1758.1, Ms Agnes Xavier-Phillips declared a potential conflict of interest as a Member of Glas Cymru (Welsh Water).

1757  Chair’s Report To Council

Received and considered paper 19/504B, ‘Chair’s Report to Council’.

Noted

Chair’s Action

1757.1 that the Chair had undertaken the following by Chair’s Action following consultation as appropriate:
1. Appointment of John Shakeshaft to the Policy & Resources Committee with effect from 6th February 2020 for a first term, ending in alignment with his term on Council on 31st July 2022;
2. Re-appointment of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, effective from 1st April 2020, for a further period of 3 years, following consultation from Council members by correspondence;
3. Re-appointment of the Pro Vice-Chancellor for the College of Physical Sciences and Engineering, effective from 3rd April 2020, for a period of 3 years, following consultation with Council Members by correspondence;
4. Approval of the 2021/2022 Fee & Access Plan for submission to HEFCW on the 19th March 2020;
5. Approval of the Strategic Equality Plan 2016-2020 Annual Monitoring Report 2018-19, following its endorsement by the Governance Committee and in order to comply with the statutory timetable requiring its publication by the 31st March 2020;
6. Approval of the 2020-2024 Strategic Equality Plan, following its endorsement by the Governance Committee and in order to comply with the statutory timetable requiring its publication by 31st March 2020.

Change to role and title of the PVC for College of Physical Sciences and Engineering

1757.2 that following the consultation with Council Members by correspondence on 13th March 2020, Council’s formal approval was now sought in relation to the change to the role and title of the Pro Vice-Chancellor for the College of Physical Sciences & Engineering (PSE) to become Pro Vice-Chancellor International and Student Recruitment and Head of College of Physical Sciences and Engineering (PVCISR-HoPSE).

Resolved

1757.3 that the change to role and title were approved.

1758 Vice-Chancellor’s Report To Council

Received and considered paper 19/506, ‘Vice-Chancellor’s Report to Council’. The Vice-Chancellor was invited to speak to this item.

Noted

1758.1 the Vice-Chancellor had met with the Chair of Welsh Water with a view to establishing a Strategic Partnership;

1758.2 the Vice-Chancellor had also met with the Chair of Erasmus +, which had proved useful, in relation to the future of studying abroad schemes;

1758.3 [REDACTED]

1758.4 in relation to the recent Quality Enhancement Review, it was noted that this had been the first review where there had been no recommendations for matters to be resolved and the feedback received had been generally positive;

1758.5 congratulations were extended on the success rate of research grants, and that although there were fewer of them, the size of the individual awards were bigger; it was further noted that the win rate was improving with the £104M in research grants confirmed by the end of February 2020 denoting the highest figure for the first seven months;

1758.6 congratulations were extended on the student recruitment, noting that this area would be critical given the current climate;

1758.7  in response to a question about capping international student numbers, it was confirmed that there was division in the sector on the topic; the Vice-Chancellor hoped capping international student numbers would be avoided, and that Government would be able to help through a corporate scheme or loan scheme to mitigate against loss of income;

1758.8 work was being undertaken to look at delivering course content online for international students who would be due to enrol but unable to travel.

1759 Major Incident (Covid-19) Briefing

Received and considered paper 19/508BR, ‘Major Incident (COVID-19) Briefing paper’. The Vice-Chancellor was invited to speak to this item.

Noted

1759.1 [REDACTED]

1759.2 [REDACTED]

1759.3 [REDACTED]

1759.4 [REDACTED]

1759.5 [REDACTED]

1759.6 [REDACTED]

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1759.7 [REDACTED]

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1760 Civic Mission Response To Covid-19

Received and considered paper 19/507, ‘Civic Mission Response to COVID-19’. The Vice-Chancellor was invited to speak to this item.

Noted

1760.1  the paper was provided for information and it detailed how universities generally, and Cardiff University specifically, were helping with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic;

1760.2 the University had offered use of its medical and dental facilities and equipment and were responding to requests for assistance from the Government;

1760.3  congratulations were extended by lay members of Council on the support being provided locally and nationally by the University;

1760.4  that the University’s Risk Register now solely covered the COVID-19 pandemic, given that no aspects of the University’s business were unaffected and that senior management were confident that the main risks had been identified;

1760.5 given that the extent and length of the pandemic and social distancing measures were unknown, scenario planning would be important to ensure the future sustainability of the institution;

1760.6 the most significant financial risk to the University was its ability to recruit international students, and that this risk would be managed by the inception of a revenue group with responsibility for review of the markets in terms of student recruitment.

1761 Students’ Union President’s Report

Received and considered paper 19/501, ‘President’s Report 2019/20’. Tomos Evans was invited to speak to this item.

Noted

1761.1 that congratulations were extended to Tomos on his election as Students’ Union President for the 2020/2021 academic year; Tomos would commence the position from the 01 July 2020;

1761.2 overall this had been a fantastic year for the Students’ Union: the Union placed 56th in the Best Companies best 100 not for-profit places to work and the Union had received the Best Students’ Union award by the National Union for Students in Wales for the second year running;

1761.3 the manifestos for each of the incoming Sabbatical Officers for the 2020/21 session were appended to the report;

1761.4 that feedback from Speak Week would be combined with the Students’ Written Submission and be presented to Council in coming months.

COVID-19

1761.5 that the Union were continuing to support student wellbeing and welfare, and that there had unfortunately been some distressing instances of victimisation on campus as a consequence COVID-19;

1761.6 the Union were represented on the Major Incident Response Silver Team, and therefore able to provide the most up to date information and guidance to students;

1761.7 thanks were extended to the University staff for their work;

1761.8 this would be the outgoing Students’ Union President, Jackie Yip’s, final meeting of Council, and she was thanked for her contributions.

1762 Cardiff Innovation Campus (CIC)

Received and considered paper 19/503B, ‘CIC Risk Management Plan’. Professor Karen Holford was invited to speak to this item.

Noted

1762.1 [REDACTED]

1762.2 the Policy & Resources Committee had recommended approval of the figures as outlined in the paper, but that the current situation suggested changes to the costs were likely;

1762.3 in light of the current restrictions resulting from COVID-19, activity across all capital projects would be reviewed;

1762.4 it was asked that Council approve the requested budget recognising that the capital projects would be reviewed in light of the ongoing pandemic;

1762.5 [REDACTED]

Resolved

1762.6 [REDACTED]

1762.7 that approval of the Project Contingency request of £8.8M remained an outstanding matter and would be brought back to Council for approval by Council when appropriate.

Capital Projects Working Group

1762.8 [REDACTED]

1762.9 [REDACTED]

1762.10 [REDACTED]

1762.11  [REDACTED]

1762.12 [REDACTED]

1762.13 [REDACTED]

1762.14 [REDACTED]

Resolved

1762.15    that the Chief Financial Officer would discuss the impact of this event with the University’s auditors, PwC, in respect of annual reporting, and investigate whether it would be necessary to report the incident to the Charity Commission; both matters would be taken to the next meeting of the Audit Committee for further discussion and decision.

1763 Sbarc I Spark Building

Received and considered paper 19/502B, ‘Cafe Operator in the sbarc I spark Building’. Professor Damian Walford Davies was invited to speak to this item.

Noted

1763.1 [REDACTED]

1763.2 [REDACTED]

1763.3 [REDACTED]

1763.4 [REDACTED]

1763.5 [REDACTED]

Resolved

1763.6  to approve awarding of a commercial lease to Milk & Sugar to operate the café and provide hospitality services in the sbarc ǀ spark building as presented.

1764 Mentally Healthy University

Received and considered paper 19/505, ‘Enabling Success: A Strategy for Creating A Mentally Healthy University’. The Vice-Chancellor was invited to speak to this item.

Noted

1764.1 the strategy related to the University as a whole and was not specifically targeted at either staff or students;

1764.2 the strategy had been deliberately designed to be a short and succinct outline of the direction of travel, with a clear public commitment to raising awareness such as issues of isolation, remote working and anxiety;

1764.3 that it was confirmed that the University would be working closely with other local Universities and organisations, having received specific funding in order to do so;

1764.4 it would be of benefit to include benchmarks in the strategy, and it was confirmed that there were pre-existing wellbeing documents containing the metrics.

Resolved

1764.5 that the strategy ‘Enabling Success: A Strategy for Creating A Mentally Healthy University’ was approved.

1765 Chair Of Council

Received and considered paper 19/509B, ‘Chair of Council’. The Chairship was handed to the Vice-Chair, Jan Juillerat.

Noted

1765.1 [REDACTED]

1765.2 [REDACTED]

1765.3 [REDACTED]

Resolved

1765.4 to approve the recommendation to seek to appoint a new Chair of Council from 1 August 2021;

1765.5 to approve the timescale and procedure for the appointment of the next Chair and the procedure for facilitation by search consultants and internal and external search for candidates;

1765.6 the Chairship was handed back to Professor Stuart Palmer.

1766 Membership Of Council And Its Committees

Received and considered paper 19/510B, ‘Membership of Council and its Committees’.

Noted

1766.1 that at the end of this academic year, there would be three lay members of Council who had served the maximum of two terms (Dr Carol Bell, Mr Alastair Gibbons and Ms Lin Phillips) and were due to retire as lay members;

1766.2 Council members were advised that in July 2019, Council had approved (in principle) the appointment of Dr Joanna Newman as a lay member of Council from 1 August 2020, and asked that this appointment now be formally approved;

1766.3 Perrett Laver had been asked to undertake the recruitment exercise for suitable replacement lay members; a timetable for the recruitment activity was presented;

1766.4  that the development and issue of a skills self-assessment form for completion by all Members of Council had been undertaken following consideration at the Governance Committee.

Resolved

1766.5 that Dr Joanna Newman’s appointment as a Lay Member of Council was agreed with effect from 1st August 2020, for an initial period of 3 years, to 31st July 2023;

1766.6 that the commencement of the search by recruitment consultants to find two new Council lay members was agreed, noting that the timescale may be subject to change.

1767  Audit Tender Update

Received and considered paper 19/511B, ‘Audit Tender Update’. The Chief Financial Officer was invited to speak to this item.

Noted

1767.1  that with receipt of this paper it had been intended to seek approval for the selection criteria and procedures for the appointment of the University’s external and internal Audit provision;

1767.2  that due to the COIVD-19 pandemic it was instead recommended that the University extend its contract with its current External Auditors (PricewaterhouseCoopers) as opposed to seeking to appoint a new auditor;

1767.3  that such an arrangement had been encouraged by the Financial Reporting Council, and consequently consideration of the audit provision would be re-considered by Audit Committee;

1767.4 that Council noted the requirements that had been developed, and that this matter would be re-presented to Council following consideration by Audit Committee;

1767.5  that it was suggested that HEFCW be made aware of these arrangements following discussion by Audit Committee.

Resolved

1767.6 that Council agreed the recommendation to pause the tender activity in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, subject to further consideration by Audit Committee.

1768 Ordinance Amendments

Noted

1768.1 that the Ordinance amendments outlined in the papers 19/514B, 19/515B and 19/517B had been approved at the start of the meeting.

1769 Any Other Business

Noted

1769.1  Council wished the University well in dealing with the ongoing major crisis offering support to the Executive.

1770 Items Received For Information

Council NOTED the following papers received for information:
Paper 19/512, Strategic Equality Plan Annual Report 2018/2019 Close Down
Paper 19/513, Strategic Equality Plan: 2020-2024
Paper 19/500’ Fee and Access Plan 2021/2022 Application