List of Appendices - University of Leicester · Appendix 5: How the Plan Impacts Elsewhere in the University . ... Work with the Division of Corporate Affairs and Planning and marketing

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

May 2012 Page 1 of 30

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE: APPENDICES TO THE COLLEGE PLAN List of Appendices

Appendix 1: College Teaching and Learning Strategy

Appendix 2: College Student Recruitment Plan

Appendix 3a: College Research Implementation Plan

Appendix 3b: College Enterprise Implementation Plan

Appendix 4: New Investment Proposals

Appendix 5: How the Plan Impacts Elsewhere in the University

Appendix 6a: College Financial Plan and Number projections (separate document)

Appendix 6b: New/Discontinued Programmes

Appendix 7: Estates Issues

Appendix 8: Professional Services: Service Improvement Plan



Appendix 1: College Teaching & Learning Strategy

Working within the University of Leicester’s Learning & Teaching Mission Statement - The University of Leicester is committed to providing the highest-quality education for all its students, enabling them to achieve success in their career paths and make a valuable contribution to society – the College of Social Science makes a major contribution to the delivery of the University’s stated strategic aims and objectives for Learning and Teaching, which state that:

This mission will be underpinned by the following strategic aims, founded on the explicit reaffirmation of the centrality of teaching, jointly with research, to:

• enrich and value the entirety of the learning experience for all students; • foster the critical intellectual development of all students through guided learning in a

research environment; • provide an equivalent experience regardless of mode of learning or learning locations; • celebrate the diversity of the student body as a contribution to learning; • encourage personal reflection and the acquisition of subject-specific and broad-based skills

to enable graduates to achieve success in their career paths and make a valuable contribution to society;

• emphasise the appointment of senior staff to improve leadership o learning and teaching and develop all staff and enhance and fully utilise the University’s physical and virtual resources in order to further these academic purposes.

These strategic aims are supported by the following objectives to:

• enhance the University’s national and international reputation for excellence in teaching; be recognised nationally and internationally for providing a student learning experience of the highest quality;

• build on the University’s current position as a major UK provider of PG, distance and flexible education by enhancing the quality of provision;

• offer research-led programmes and select students solely on the basis of their potential to succeed academically;

• provide our graduates with the skill-sets and ethos to make them a stand-out choice for employers;

• develop the University’s international reputation for research and innovation in learning and teaching;

• recognise and fully reward the contributions of staff and students to the attainment of these objectives.



COLLEGE CONTEXT

The College of Social Science will seek to align its activities with the action points identified in the University’s Learning and Teaching Strategy 2011-2016:

1. develop ways of working that foster students’ active engagement with their learning and career

progression and that welcome their contribution to the design and delivery of their programmes.

By ensuring maximum student representation and participation in departmental and college structures and processes, and providing induction and support for those students who take on active roles in such activities.

2. enhance curricula, being attentive to internationalisation, sustainability and the requirements of

employers.

By being creative in programme design, having due regard to the University’s equal opportunity responsibilities and seeking to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between all people, being responsive to known employer demand and mindful of relevant available market research.

3. enhance the provision, scope, flexibility, sustainability and delivery of taught programmes.

By maintaining student staff ratios at appropriate levels; and by encouraging fresh initiatives in creative course development, including DL programmes, and making maximum use of support mechanisms, in particular technological advances in the delivery of programmes.

4. improve students’ breadth and level of achievement.

By maximising use of non-credit bearing elements of the student experience and working consistently towards improved completion rates and higher proportions of first and upper second awards at UG degree level, and increased numbers of merit and distinction awards at UG Certificate and PG levels.

5. achieve a shared understanding with students of what they can expect to receive in terms of

academic support, contact and resources and to contribute in terms of their own investment of effort.

By offering clear statements of the levels of academic and personal tutor support which will be provided and working closely with students in their academic and personal development.

6. improve the employability of graduates with a renewed emphasis on their securing graduate

level employment.

By embedding, and making explicit, key employability skills within the curriculum, and assisting students to recognise their relevance (including those developed through paid employment), by



developing opportunities for work-related learning, and by emphasising the value of extra-curricular employability-related activities.

7. provide high quality student facilities and services .

By ensuring maximum student awareness and use of departmental and central University support services.

8. foster engagement with research into learning and teaching as means of underpinning the

enhancement of educational programmes and the University’s reputation as a leader in this field.

By ensuring staff awareness of relevant pedagogical research in relation to their field of teaching, including online components in taught programmes and distance and online learning.

9. formalise career paths and implement promotion procedures that recognise and reward the

contributions made by staff to the development and direction of teaching excellence.

By encouraging and supporting staff to participate in relevant training, and to take full advantage of University schemes which reward teaching excellence.

10. enhance quality assurance and enhancement processes

By ensuring that all departments fully engage in QA processes requiring systematic reflection on quality indicators with a view to ongoing improvement and enhancement of teaching provision, which will include a commitment to the professional development of teaching staff.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE STRATEGY 2011-12

In order to address the above points in concrete terms, the College of Social Science will act as follows, reviewing the action points listed below during the second term of the academic year 2012- 13:

1. Review the level of student participation in decision-making structures within departments and the college on an annual basis, at relevant Academic meetings in the spring of each year (e.g. are student representatives in place? are SSCs active?).

2. Conduct an annual check at departmental and college level to ensure that all learning and

teaching activities in the College avoid unlawful discrimination, harassment and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010 and by the University’s Equal Opportunity Statement.

Work with the Division of Corporate Affairs and Planning and marketing to identify market opportunities for the development of new courses and potential enhancement of existing curriculum.



3. Encourage at least one application from within the College to each round of awards made through the Teaching Enhancement Approvals Group.

Employ two new learning technologists, and play a leading role within course development of the application of new learning technologies in close co-operation with the University’s new learning innovation strategy and e-learning/DL developments.

By remaining attentive to, and acting upon, Widening Participation and broader issues of cultural diversity and service to the local community in recruitment and course design.

4. Encourage maximum participation by College students in, and actively increase the numbers

of applications made for, the Leicester Award and the College Employability Prize.

Participate fully in the introduction of HEARs for all students and continued development of PDP across departments, as a means of students reflecting on own learning and experience.

5. Make available full KIS data for each department and review the data annually to ensure that appropriate adjustments are made to the declared information

Monitor, and where necessary improve, the effectiveness of personal tutor systems via the ADR process.

6. Set up a College employability task and finish group to review current employability activity in departments, to share good practice and to improve DLHE scores for individual departments.

Take on a College employability intern to examine student experience of employability issues and skills development.

Work with the University Careers Service to ensure a co-ordinated approach to careers management and employability for students across the college, including increasing the involvement of employers within departments/College.

7. Continue work on improving of NSS scores across the College paying particular direct

attention to areas of departmental work which scored below 75%, with the aim of maximising NSS scores in individual departments.

Contribute to University-wide discussion and decision-making on teaching spaces to ensure that space is fit for the specific purpose of College of Social Science student learning needs.

Work collaboratively with central services, including the Library, in the design of services, not just of physical facilities but also of the curriculum, e.g. by embedding information literacy skills in the curriculum.



8. To encourage strongly those teaching staff who are not already Fellows of the HEA to become so.

To take fuller advantage of tutor/lecturer training and support made available through the Academic Practice Unit.

To collaborate fully with work undertaken in and through the Institute of Learning Innovation in the interests of new College and University initiatives and developments in DL and e-learning.

9. To encourage greater numbers of College staff applications for University Teaching

Fellowships.

To continue to recognise and reward, and encourage the number of, students who contribute to the teaching and learning of fellow students, for example through Teaching Partnership Awards.

10. To continue to use ADRs to ensure annual monitoring of the processing of external examiner

comments and suggestions.

To achieve, in partnership with the Quality office through existing approval channels, by the Summer of 2014, a full overhaul of all programme and module specifications in use across the College, to ensure that all conform to current formats, and thereby contain sharp ILOs and clear assessment procedures.

To clarify further (by Summer 2012) College procedures for the approval of new programmes and the process by which existing programmes are modified, vis-a-vis the University approvals procedures and ensure that departments have clear structures and communication channels for operating these procedures.



Appendix 2: College Student Recruitment Plan

COLLEGE APPROACH TO DEVEOPING NEW PROGRAMMES AND MARKETS

New programmes are being introduced by departments and there is further scope for growth and expansion, as well as a range of ideas and willingness by departments to participate in new developments. However, the availability of up-front resources is a significant issue, with some departments at full capacity and conscious of the need to maintain the quality of the student experience.

COLLEGE VIEW ON FEE LEVELS AND SCOPE FOR HIGHER FEES

Clearly the biggest area of change over the last 12 months has been the change to UG home/EU fee levels, for both full- and part-time students, the impact of which is not certain at the moment. The College will follow advice from the Corporate Services on how to manage the outcome of this change and how to proceed in future years with regard fee setting.

The College international UG and PG taught fees have increased significantly for 2011/12, with all courses moving one point up the fee spine, in addition to the general 6.5% inflationary increase applied to all spine points. Recruitment in these areas does not appear to have been affected by this change, but the College feels that further price rises in this area would be risky in the current economic environment. Premium priced courses were not specifically addressed as part of this re- pricing move and this is still an area that can be reviewed in the coming year.

Distance learning fees are also undergoing changes, instigated by a University wide change to distance learning fee structures. The proposed new structure has not, however, been accepted as appropriate by all departments, and as a result, the change has not led to the clearer pricing structure hoped for. A further review of this will be undertaken in the autumn through the College Pricing Committee, with support from Corporate Affairs and Planning. However, given the volatility of the distance learning markets in the current global economic climate, the possibility of increasing fees may be limited.

Part time provision within the College will undoubtedly be affected by the rise to the home/EU fee. Lifelong Learning in particular is anticipating falls in student recruitment across a substantial part of its portfolio. The change has already contributed to the decision to withdraw one course, the FdA/BA Educational Studies in Education. There is unlikely to be scope for higher fees in this area in the near future.

As mentioned last year, the College Pricing Committee is now operational and has been used to form College views on some of the significant fee discussions this year. It will continue to operate for the foreseeable future to support College decision making in this area.



COLLEGE APPROACH TO DISTANCE LEARNING AND PART-TIME EDUCATION

Responsible: Academic Director, Jackie Dunne

The College of Social Science has a diverse student body. A significant majority of the University’s part-time (66% in 2010/11) and distance learning students (81%) is registered in the College. Ninety- one per cent of the University’s part-time UG students are found in the College, as are 56% of PGT students. Thirty-six per cent of the students in the College are DL students. It is, therefore, appropriate that the College should be at the forefront of the University’s activity in developing and implementing a wide range of pedagogical innovations. The College also contains a large number of international students (just under half of its FTEs), providing a rich cultural mix in the student body together with significant challenges in delivering an effective learning experience. Reliance on associate tutors for many of these programmes means that the outcomes of the current review of atypical workers being undertaken in the University will be significant for the College.

COLLEGE APPROACH TO INTERNATIONAL RECRUITMENT

Responsible: Director of Research and Enterprise, Peter Jackson

The College of Social Science has a long-standing set of international collaborations with a large number of DL partners across many parts of the world. It has approximately 3,400 international Masters level students studying by DL and a further 600 undergraduate DL students. Six hundred and forty UG international students are studying on campus along with over 1000 international Masters students. A substantial proportion of the College’s 400 research students are also international.

The College’s international strategy will focus on:

• Working with the International Office to achieve the College’s international student number

targets and to diversify the mix of international students; • Expanding the College’s international research capacity and reach; • Raising the College’s international profile and reputation; • Development and internationalisation of the curricula; • Enhancing the College’s profile in order to improve the quality of the international student

intake.

The College will seek to achieve these objectives through:

• Building upon the current high quality teaching experience of international students; Attracting high quality international students and working towards diversifying the international student intake;

• Exploring the feasibility of engaging in a variety of overseas articulation arrangements; • Collaborating with a variety of international recruitment agencies to explore how the

curriculum might be refreshed and developed to ensure that it is attractive to overseas students;



• Work with the various parts of Corporate Services to identify new markets and programmes for campus and distance learning students;

• Recruitment of additional high quality international PG research students and exploration of funding sources for these students;

• Publishing in journals, and with publishers, that reflect the high quality and international reach of our research;

• Identifying appropriate potential international partners and exploring the scope and feasibility of engaging and collaborating with them in research;

• Engagement with universities in developing countries to build their research capacity through research collaborations and Masters and PhD programmes for their staff;

• Raising awareness of, and encouraging and seeking external funding for, visiting staff from overseas universities and research institutes to spend time working with members of the College.

COLLEGE APPROACH TO EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT

Responsible: Director of Research and Enterprise, Peter Jackson

The College has in the past taken a lead role in the development of employer engagement across the University. The HEFCE Employer Engagement funding has now come to an end. The College will continue to pursue engagement with employers through its enterprise strategy. All departments within the College are well placed to build relationships with employers in a variety of different contexts. Management, incorporating the Centre for Labour Market Studies, already has significant links with employers through its various programmes and knowledge exchange activities. Media and Communication has ambitious plans to introduce practice based modules into a number of its degree programmes. Through the enterprise strategy we shall develop our engagement with employers across all departments in the College. This is regarded as an important element of the College’s employability strategy.

The College of Social Science will:

• Further develop its engagement with employers through its various degree courses; short courses and continuing professional development activities;

• Engage with employers when appropriate research opportunities present themselves; • Engage with employers through enterprise, knowledge exchange and knowledge transfer

activities; • Embrace the University’s graduate “employability” agenda.



Appendix 3a: College Research Implementation Plan

RESEARCH STRATEGY

AIM

The College of Social Science aims to be a leader in the provision of transformative research which has a high impact value. Delivering this aim will require sustainable development in all areas of research activity including, in particular, publications, research grant capture, research student recruitment and completions, engagement with user communities and representation within agenda shaping external organisations.

OBJECTIVES

1. To achieve a sustainable improvement in our research outputs and research impacts and a

strong performance in REF(2013) for all Units of Assessment submitted by the College; 2. To improve performance in research grant capture to meet agreed targets; 3. To improve research student recruitment to meet agreed targets whilst improving quality; 4. To build the visibility and external reputation of University of Leicester social science

academics through representation on learned societies, editorial boards and grant awarding bodies as well as external examining;

5. To build a clear identity for Social Science at Leicester; 6. To build new links and partnerships within and beyond the College, including collaborations

with national and international research organisations.

STRATEGIES

To achieve an improvement in REF(2013) for all Units of Assessment submitted by the College.

RESOURCES

• The College will work within its envelope of resources to improve its absolute and relative Student Staff Ratios (SSRs);

• the College is committed to appointing, at all levels, staff of the highest calibre; when hiring new staff, attention will be given to building research leadership across the College;

• priority, wherever possible, will be given to the appointment of senior staff to improve the ratio of junior to senior posts;

• improvements in research productivity will be sought through carefully targeted investments that will be aimed at freeing up research time;

• the College will provide support for early career researchers; • the College will seek to make provision for external research mentoring if that is not available

from within the College.



MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT

• Departments will ensure that they have in place effective management information systems for monitoring and enabling the review of all aspects of their research activities, including grant applications, the progress of applications and their success;

• departments will engage with members of staff, on a regular basis throughout the year, and conduct a review of their research plans and achievements;

• departments will ensure that they have in place research mentoring arrangements for all academic staff;

• departments will ensure that they have in place support mechanisms that will assist those members of staff whose research performance is falling short of expectations;

• the Head of College, Director of College Research and the senior team from each department will review, every six months, the research performance of each department.

REF PREPARATIONS

• departments will work to achieve, at a minimum, the agreed GPA for outputs for their

unit of assessment; • departments will work closely with the College and the PVC (Research and Enterprise)

to validate judgments about the quality of outputs; • departments will ensure that proposed submissions are read by subject specialists and

where appropriate external consultants; • departments will work closely with the College to ensure selectivity that will produce a

minimum REF return for each person submitted that meets the requirement of improvement for the unit of assessment;

• departments will structure timetables; create special study leave and introduce other initiatives which free up time to enable staff to meet publishing and grant applications deadlines;

• departmental Research Impact Co-ordinators will continue to craft their impact narratives and impact statements;

• the College will convene a Research Impact Working Group comprised of the departmental Impact Co-ordinators and others to review draft impact narratives and statements and to share best practice in order to optimise performance in this element of the REF;

• looking beyond REF(2013) departments will maintain records of impact activity for future REF and other purposes;

• the College will organise workshops on, “How to Get Published” and “Academic Writing”.

To improve performance in research grant capture to meet agreed targets

• departments will ensure that they have in place mechanisms which improve the

probability of achieving their agreed research grant targets (see Annex 1) – those mechanisms will be reviewed regularly;

• the College will monitor regularly departmental grant capture activity and progress against their plans;

• departments will ensure that all research grant applications are peer reviewed up to a value of £50k;



• the College will peer review all grant applications above a value of £50k; • staff who have already secured a strong REF return will be encouraged to focus on grant

capture; • the College will promote the flow of information about research grant opportunities and

maintain the College Research Blackboard site; • the College will organise and co-ordinate cross disciplinary bids for major research projects

when they arise; • the College will identify broad based research themes across and beyond the College.

To improve research student recruitment to meet agreed targets whilst maintaining and improving quality

• departments will increase their recruitment of research students to meet targets

whilst maintaining and wherever possible improving quality; • the College will work closely with departments to increase significantly, subject to

affordability, the number of scholarships available for PG research students; • the College will work with departments to expand the availability of distance

learning PG research programmes, including the traditional PhD and professional doctorates such as the D.Soc.Sci : o The College will work with the Academic Practice Unit to ensure that its PG research

training meets the requirements of the changing national funding regime; o the College will work to improve the supporting infrastructure, including space, for

PG research students; • departments will ensure that they have in place effective recording and monitoring

systems that track PGR student progress and completion rates.

To build the visibility and external reputation of University of Leicester academics through representation on learned societies, editorial boards and grant awarding bodies as well as external examining

• the College will encourage greater representation of Leicester social scientists on

key research agenda shaping committees such as those of the research councils and learned societies;

• the College will continue to work towards expanding its number of Academicians of the Academy of Social Science;

• the College will encourage, and where appropriate support, individuals to present at national and international interdisciplinary conferences and to build research networks;

• the College will, as part of its international strategy, explore possible international research collaborations;

• the College will organize a workshop for early career researchers on networking and achieving external recognition.



To build a clear identity for Social Science at Leicester

The range and depth of research carried out by departments within the College reflects the “intellectual curiosity” of its members rather than a single externally imposed agenda. Our objectives are to influence the theory, analysis and practice of social science by producing transformative research of high impact.

• departments will continue to develop their own research themes, clusters and

special interest groups; • the College will seek to develop research themes and clusters.

To build new links and partnerships within and beyond the College, including collaborations with national and international organisations.

Research productivity, grant capture and the quality of our research outputs can be enhanced by working with other researchers, who share our interests and who subscribe to our particular values and orientations. Some of these researchers are to be found within our College, whilst others are in other Colleges. In many instances considerable advantages are found through the formation of research partnerships and alliances with national and international research organisations including other universities. These will build upon our research clusters.

• We shall map existing research partnerships; • We shall explore how we can make better use of existing partnerships; • We will seek to establish new partnerships.


Appendix 3b: College Enterprise Implementation Plan

The vision of the College of Social Science includes the establishment of the College as a leader in the delivery of high value social impact research and enterprise activities over the next 3 to 5 years. A key element of this vision is to ensure that our research and teaching contributes to the regional, national and international society and to the economy. The College seeks to be recognised for and to play a major role in thought leadership on social, economic, environmental and cultural impact.

The College’s enterprise agenda will develop innovative knowledge exchange mechanisms to harness and deploy the knowledge we create through research and scholarship, thereby ensuring that our research will contribute to the creation of value and the development of society. We shall build dynamic and effective links with local and national communities, including businesses, the public sector, other universities and research institutes and policy makers through research collaborations and productive knowledge exchange activities. We shall seek to contribute to a wider social agenda including economic and social enterprise; social, community and environmental support; cultural and intellectual enrichment; and participation in civic life, global development, the communication of ideas and problem solving.

The foundation of this agenda is our transformational research and inspirational scholarship along with our stimulating and innovative learning and teaching activities. Our enterprise strategy sets out our commitment to ensuring that this agenda will be fulfilled through a wide ranging and diverse set of innovative enterprise activities, which include knowledge exchange (KE) and knowledge transfer (KT) in addition to other activities which have significant economic, social, environmental and cultural impact. Our enterprise strategy complements our student employability strategy. Student enterprise is seen as an integral element of our degree programmes.

Implementation of the strategy will require the identification and creation of new partnerships and alliances, along with the strengthening of existing portfolios of collaborative relationships with external partners. This will require resources to identify, disseminate, and target potential and existing partners as well as aligning the College with strategic partners such as the Technology Strategy Board.

Enterprise is relatively new to the College of Social Science. Our strategy, therefore, needs to acknowledge the need to stimulate cultural change and to establish enterprise activities as an integral element of individual and departmental agenda. In the College of Social Science knowledge is generated through research and scholarship and its transfer takes a variety of forms including: leverage of research results; training of students and practitioners in enterprise practices and policies; consulting; contract and collaborative research; vocational Masters programmes and continuing professional development; teaching and training.

To draw the most out of our research, enterprise must establish a higher profile and greater visibility internally. Members of staff need to be supported with practical advice and guidance, in addition to reward and recognition. We shall improve communication to staff about the opportunities that can arise from being “enterprising” in a variety of contexts and develop skills, capabilities and capacities in line with requirements.

March 2012 Page 14 of 30



The College of Social Science is a centre for intellectually demanding research, informed education that nurtures independence of mind. It helps students to achieve their personal goals whilst at the same time serving the wider needs of society. Members of the College are committed to pursue and share knowledge and understanding both for their own sake and to help individuals and society fulfil their potential. The College is engaged with society’s interests, concerns, priorities and aspirations and does so through a stimulating and supportive environment for all staff and students with a commitment to achieving the highest standards, respect for the individual and a strong sense of collegiality. Enterprise enriches the College’s core mission of teaching and research.

ENTERPRISE STRATEGY OBJECTIVES

• to raise awareness across the College about the importance of the enterprise agenda, including social enterprise;

• to develop a culture of enterprise and knowledge transfer that encourages staff and students to actively embrace enterprise by regularly promoting social enterprise ‘best practices’ to enable the creation of innovative enterprise engagement delivery through activities that are designed to use that knowledge effectively to create value and social impact ;

• to create an effective structure to support enterprise activities and to enable the teaching, facilitation and development of enterprise by the provision of practical advice and guidance as required;

• to give incentives to collaborate with enterprise partners such as companies; public sector organisations; NGOs; third sector and other research and scholarly organisations;

• to ensure that KT/KE are supported where sustainable benefits can be demonstrated;

• to seek, develop and establish strategic partnerships and alliances with key external organisations, nationally and internationally, that resonate with our agenda; to develop novel enterprise programmes and engagement mechanisms to encourage external organisations to regularly engage with, visit and utilize expertise from across the College e.g. translating and repackaging research and teaching materials for a variety of consumptions;

• develop a broad range of marketing and promotional material to showcase the expertise and skills of the College;

• provide opportunities to engage with the wider enterprise agenda via workshops and seminars;

• provide a variety of innovative curriculum developments, informed by research, for students to engage with enterprise through: o embedding enterprise and KT in core modules or electives; o access to programmes at UG and PG levels that focus on the development of

entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, practice and understanding; o access to extracurricular short courses both accredited and non-accredited; o access to workshops, seminars and information designed to support entrepreneurial

students; o development of critical perspectives of enterprise practices and policies;

• promote and support cross departmental and cross College collaboration in programme development and delivery and in the sharing of expertise;



• to be a leader of good practice and to develop criteria for good practice in enterprise activities.

SPECIFIC TARGETS FOR 2012/2013

• to establish a College of Social Science enterprise forum for academic members of staff; • to establish a student enterprise club; • to develop a supporting infrastructure and information system which will enable the

development of KE/KT activities and the formation of external partnerships; • to hold workshops that facilitate curriculum development and student employability

around the enterprise agenda; • to expand the College’s offering of short courses and CPD activities as part of a more

general employer engagement agenda; • to increase the value of awards arising from KE/KT; • to establish a College of Social Science enterprise forum for external organisations and

academic members of staff to meet regularly and discuss topics of relevance that will raise the profile of the College;

• to recruit a minimum of three enterprise champions from across the College to identify KE/KT opportunities ;

• to increase the volume of enterprise marketing and promotional materials for wide use including REF impact stories.


Appendix 4a New Investment Proposals

A. PAY BUDGET

[see separate document]

B. NON-PAY BUDGET

The total College non-pay budget for 2012/13 has been projected based on actual historical expenditure and forecasts for student population changes. Specific allocations have been made for maternity and sickness contingency, commitments to new and existing scholarship schemes, essential resource development, continuing support for research development and backfill for the College Academic and Research Directors. As in 2011/12, the majority of College non-pay is distributed to departments by use of a student number based formula.

A change to 2011/12 in terms of apportionment of College non-pay is the intention to top slice the total fund available to departments in order to provide funds to support development activity and to support innovation. This was felt necessary given the difficulties departments face to make space for investment in new ideas within their recurrent non-pay budgets. Providing this fund as a possible source for investment in innovative teaching methods and development work for new DL modules, for example, will enable departments to both sustain and improve student experience, without compromising other areas of activity, like research. The following specific non-pay allocations are proposed for 2012/13.

SPECIFIC NON-PAY ALLOCATIONS

College of Social Science

2012/13

2013/14

2014/15

2015/16

Department Non Pay

8,586,505

8,758,501

8,778,501

8,778,501

College Non Pay

49,130

49,130

49,130

49,130

Books (PGT)

239,000

242,000

248,000

249,000

Telephone

-142,000

-142,000

-142,000

-142,000

PGR Training

3,600

3,600

3,600

3,600

Maternity/Sickness Contingency

50,000

50,000

50,000

50,000

DL PhD Development

6,000

Research Development Fund

100,000

100,000

100,000

100,000

Study Leave Backfill

50,000

-

-

-

Staff development

10,000

10,000

10,000

10,000

Admin Post Contingency

34,000

-

-

-

New Scholarship Scheme 2010/11

142,978

136,265

66,565

3,249


243,465

256,467

140,575

22,053





237,498

228,508

231,744

208,116 2012/13 Savings for Chinese scholarship agreements

12,502

21,492

18,256

41,884


250,000

250,000

250,000


250,000

250,000


250,000

Fee Waiver correction

-140,000

-196,000

-211,000

-226,000

Employability

100,000

100,000

100,000

100,000

Media Production suite

60,000

Management - Academic Mentorship

50,000

Strategic Fund

12,248

2,467

7,107

9,152

In lieu of using CLMS frozen balances to support research activity and GTA recruitment in the School of Management

60,000

60,000

60,000

9,764,929

9,930,430

10,010,478

10,006,686

C. RESERVES

Proposals for the use of College Reserves 2012/13 to 2015/16 including allocations to departments. If frozen balances are to be used, please indicate this.

Proposed use Date of planned expenditure

Amount

Use of 2010/11 surplus returned to College. Of the £256k, £123k is to be held at College level for funding course development, one off projects to support strategic development, and various other activities, and £133k is being disbursed back out to departments.

2011/12 to 2014/15

£256,000



Appendix 5: How the Plan Impacts Elsewhere within the University

Area Notes Department(s) Academic Practice Unit

Concerns about professional development and career progression routes for teaching only staff.

Criminology Education Media

Estates See separate section ALL Finance Agent Commission is still accounted for as a direct cost

for DL programmes and as part of the contribution for campus-based. This appears to have no logical basis and creates ongoing problems in understanding the relative profitability of campus-based and DL programmes. This issue was raised in last year’s plan and the College has recently received a paper proposing a change to accounting methods. We would hope that the matter can be resolved before budgets are set for 2012-13. Advertising/recruitment spend is still accounted for as a direct cost for DL programmes and as part of the contribution for campus-based. This appears to have no logical basis, creates additional administration in making budget transfers and agreeing spending plans, and creates problems in understanding the relative profitability of campus-based and DL programmes. This issue has been raised in the last two College Plans.

IT Services Assignment handling (both marking and associated administrative processes) is under scrutiny in order to meet 21/28 day turnaround times. A number of departments have moved (or are planning to move) to using Grade Mark – support is needed in implementing and using the system.

Criminology Education Management Media Politics LILL Criminology Education Management Media Politics Management Criminology Politics Economics

Marketing & International Office

The College is concerned that international recruitment for DL and PGT appears to rely heavily on certain geographical markets and a limited number of subject areas which are now at their limits (Management, Economics, Media). Work is urgently needed to diversify international recruitment into other departments and to address other regions (particularly an issue with regard to China). Departments report a lack of support with market research/intelligence in relation to international markets. This issue was raised in last year’s College Plan. The College welcomes the work that has been done over the past year to improve the management of DL agents. However we are concerned by an ongoing decline in DL student numbers particularly in Management. Attention urgently needs to be given to expanding markets and finding new and suitable agents to replace those we are divesting. This issue was raised in last year’s College Plan.

Management Economics Media Politics Criminology Education Sociology Management Media Criminology Education



Human Resources HR support will be required for: − Implementation of the Education Healthcheck − Implementation of the Media Administrative

Service Review − Development and implementation of

restructuring plans for Management-CLMS administrative team

− Implementation of Admissions ‘business as usual’ and the proposed College Admissions Hub

Registry Support will be required to resolve practical issues in respect of the new joint degrees and the development of partnerships with consortia developing school centred initial teacher training provision

Registry/ITS Issues in relation to Education student records databases highlighted in the Education Healthcheck need urgent resolution

Education Media Management Media Politics Criminology Education Education

Systems Thinking (Registry/Admissions)

Systems thinking interventions planned or in progress with four departments. A key issue for the College will be ensuring that the implementation of the recommendations from its service reviews and systems thinking interventions work in complementary ways to ensure the overall improvement of the service.

Management Education LILL Media


Appendix 6a: College Financial and Student Number Projections

(see separate document)

Appendix 6b: New/Discontinued Programmes

Programme Title Awar d (BA/B Sc, MA/ MSc, etc)

New or Discontinue d

Mod e (CB, DL or both )

Date of first intake

Propose d date to FSPDC

HEU Headcou nt

HEU FTE

OS Headcou nt

OS FTE

Student nos. in projectio ns? Y/N

Estimated contribution (absolute £000’s)

Contributi on in financial summary? Y/N

MA International Education DL

MA New DL Oct- 12

Approve d

15 5.00 30 10.0 0

Y 82 Y

MA Education: Leadership and Learning

MA New CB Oct- 12

Approve d

25 15.00 0 0 Y 34 Y

MA Global Financial Markets

MA New CB Oct- 13

TBC 7.51 7.5 7.5 7.5 Y 55 Y

MSc HRM and Training

MSc New CB Oct- 13

TBC 10 10.00 50 50.0 0

N TBC N

MA in Civil Society and Third Sector Management (DL)

MA New DL Oct- 13

Approve d

6 2.00 6 2.00

N Deficit in Yr 1 - rising to £200k p.a by 2016/17

N

MA in Public Administration

MA New Both Oct- 13

Approve d

10 CB, 20 DL

16.67 10 CB, 20 DL

16.6 7

N 254 N

1 Student numbers and ftes represent Management’s share (50%) of the total student recruitment planned for 2013/14



Programme Title Awar d (BA/B Sc, MA/ MSc, etc)

New or Discontinue d

Mod e (CB, DL or both )

Date of first intake

Propose d date to FSPDC

HEU Headcou nt

HEU FTE

OS Headcou nt

OS FTE

Student nos. in projectio ns? Y/N

Estimated contribution (absolute £000’s)

Contributi on in financial summary? Y/N

Certificate of HE Counselling (DL)

Cert HE

New DL Jan- 13

ASAP 15 5.00 0 0 N Deficit in Yr 1 - rising to £227k p.a by 2016/17

N

FD Counselling FD New CB Oct- 13

ASAP TBC TBC TBC TBC N TBC N

Educational Studies (withdrawal)

FdA Withdrawal CB Sep- 11

ASAP 32 16 0 0 Y - For period of withdra wal - no new intakes

171 Y - For period of withdrawa l

Educational Studies (withdrawal)

BA Withdrawal CB Sep- 14

ASAP 7 3.5 0 0 Y - For period of withdra wl - no new intakes

(see above) Y - For period of withdrawa l

MA and PGD American Foreign Policy (withdrawal)

MA Withdrawal CB and DL

* (see note)

ASAP 1 1 0 0

N

0

N HE Diploma in Contemporary Psychodynamic Counselling

HE Dip

Withdrawal CB 09/10 ASAP 3 1.5 0 0 N 0 N

* CB 2008/9, DL MA :1 student 2010/11 and 2011/12



Appendix 7: Estates Issues

Issue Departments Notes Progress Maintenance/upkeep of existing buildings

Concerns with insufficient space for continuing growth of department

LILL 1. Persistent problems with boiler in 14 Salisbury Boiler will be replaced over the Easter period which Road. will resolve all problems with heating/hot water.

2. Vaughan College gets minimal maintenance as Departmental Manager for LILL to provide a detailed

University is undecided as to its future – recent note on security issues at Vaughan College to Tim problems have included security, heating and lift. Yates.

Criminology 3. External appearance of the building has becoming North Campus to be included in Systems Thinking tatty, internally in-year emergencies resulting from intervention for Maintenance services in the next 2- roof and ceiling collapses have highlighted the 3 months. need for proactive rather than reactive maintenance.

Criminology 4. The Department has reached capacity in terms of Sarah Peacock is currently putting together a academic office space for any additional staff. timetable of contingent moves across the campus.

Criminology’s space requirements will be considered as part of this.

Management 5. Continuation of the project to move other third ELTU are aware of the need to relocate from 6th floor party occupants out of KEB in order to free up of KEB. Sarah Peacock pursuing with Marina Spunter space for the growth of Management. This needs and Christine Fyfe. to be a priority as there is no expansion space at present.

Economics 6. The Department is nearing capacity; were it to Sarah Peacock in currently putting together a recruit to all current academic vacancies they timetable of contingent moves across the campus would be unable to accommodate all new which should free up space in Astley Clarke to appointments. accommodate new appointments.

Media 7. Concerns about future growth space (see 12 below)

(see 12 below)




Politics 8. The department are nearing capacity and have concerns about future growth space (see 13 below).

Sarah Peacock is currently putting together a timetable of contingent moves across the campus. Politics’ space requirements will be considered as part of this.

Issues with space for PGR students

Management 9. PGR students located at Freemens Common with hot-desk space in KEB – this accommodation is at capacity and will no longer be available when the Freemens Common site is redeveloped.

Sarah Peacock is currently putting together a timetable of contingent moves across the campus. PhD space requirements will be considered as part of this.

Availability of lecture theatre space

Economics 10. The Department has no space for additional PGR numbers; a previous hot desking solution wasn’t feasible because of the specific software the Economics PGR students require.

Management 11. The disaggregation of Masters teaching to create the capacity for additional students proposed above is dependent upon the resolution of timetabling issues which are currently under discussion with the Academic Registrar.

Departmental Manager for Economics to provide a report on specialist needs of Economics PhD students which will be fed into space utilisation planning. Some progress has been made on identifying additional teaching space and this is currently being pursued actively.

‘Lab’ Space for Media Media 12. The Department are considering development of practical elements to their courses. In order to do this they will need studio space, editing facilities and space that could become a newsroom-type environment. Initial suggestions focus on the ground floor of Bankfield House however, it is unclear whether this would provide the right amount of space. This would mean sacrificing general teaching space though and put pressure on the University’s core provision.

Attenborough Tower Politics 13. There is no capacity for new appointments in the Department nor do they have a meeting room. In addition the Department would like create shared office space for their administration.

Consideration should be given to shared facilities with institutions and commercial organisations in the region. Anne Hall and Sarah Peacock to contact DMU for an initial discussion. Sarah Peacock and Departmental Manger in discussion to explore possibility of a shared admin space in Politics.



College Office

14. College Office would like to have a shared admin space; this was raised with Estates in 2010 and 2011.

Shared admin space for College Office is a possibility however; there are issues around IT cabling capacity generally in Attenborough Tower which needs to be taken into consideration when planning any refurbishments.

Freemens Common 15. The College is strongly supportive of a proposal to develop a building that could house Management and Media and Communication. The Freemens Common development would enable the University to generate additional resources through more students and the ability to offer an executive MBA programme to compete with ‘top tier’ business schools. Media and Communication are proposing to move in the direction of provision of more professional practice-oriented courses; new types of teaching spaces will be needed including studios, newsrooms, online laboratories, editing suites and so on. This would entail re- location to a larger building than Bankfield House.

It is understood that due to the current uncertain climate in the HE environment plans for redevelopment of Freemens Common will be put on hold and revisited by the Financial Forecasting Group at a later date.



Appendix 8: College of Social Science Service Improvement Plan

IMPROVEMENT AREA 1 –COMMUNICATION ACROSS DEPARTMENTS, COLLEGES AND THE UNIVERSITY What we mean is: Interface between departments and central University function (signposting) Communication with and support for academic colleagues Joined up University wide communications

IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS DEPARTMENT 1. Establish contacts in Corporate Services and ensure information is published on College Office website and

signposted in presentations and at appropriate Committees. 2. Obtain feedback on service delivery from relevant academic staff prior to admin staff appraisals. 3. Ensure admin staff meetings are held more regularly and implement annual staff away days. 4. Continued personal monitoring and development through staff appraisals. 5. Improve accuracy, timeliness and clarity of information exchanges with stakeholders. 6. Improve signposting of services and service level agreements to stakeholders. 7. Improve structure of administrative staff meetings to ensure colleagues are aware of University wide

developments and to provide mechanisms to feedback. 8. Reintroduction of weekly small team meetings to review working practices and processes.

College Office LILL Sociology Sociology Sociology Sociology Economics

Economics

IMPROVEMENT AREA 2 – Financial Performance What we mean is: Distribution of resources between departments Management of departmental performance Management of financial procedures and processes

IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS DEPARTMENT 9. Ensure that financial issues are identified and appropriate action taken as part of the annual departmental

planning round. 10. Provide regular financial updates and forecasts to academic colleagues.

College Office Criminology LILL



11. Improve purchasing procedures in department to reduce level of unapproved expenditure and ensure that all staff are aware of procedures.

12. Ensure spending is within budgetary constraints, with no overspend; continued regular monitoring with

appropriate action taken when necessary. Communicate with staff so they have an awareness of the financial situation.

13. Improve authorisation procedures and financial processing systems, increase utilisation of purchasing cards.

Sociology

Economics

IMPROVEMENT AREA 3 – Governance and Record Keeping What we mean is: Governance and management of risk Maintenance of the student record Flow of data between Departments/College/University

IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS DEPARTMENT 14. Papers for meeting in good order and distributed appropriately in advance of meetings and improve turnaround

times for minutes. 15. Investigation of ‘paperless’ working practices. 16. Review current risk and business continuity registers for departments to ensure fit for purpose and all

departments have one. 17. Ensure governance and risk information is still suitable for departments where mergers/restructuring have taken

place or are planned. 18. Work pro-actively with Information Assurance Services to ensure that departmental and College information

security systems and processes are developed and reviewed in a coherent manner across the College and are compliant with University policy.

19. Review systems in conjunction with Corporate Services for notification of changes to the student record (e.g. Delays occur because paper forms are used/ required by Registry/Look at system whereby changes can be notified e.g. email acceptable?).

20. Recommend that all LILL courses are administered through SITS from application stage to improve the timely and accurate flow of student information.

21. Request that University approves more access to SITS for relevant departmental staff to improve the timely and accurate flow of student information.

22. To support the creation of one University database (including student records, assignment handling and CRM) to better inform all stakeholders of student data.

College Office Criminology Management College Office

College Office

College Office

LILL

LILL LILL

Management



23. Ensure support staff are fully aware of University policies and regulations specific to their area by ensuring adequate training.

24. Review agent records to ensure clear, concise, and consistent working guidelines for agents; develop a system

for managing current, and recruiting ‘good’ reputable overseas agents. 25. Clarification of the roles of Committees and Sub-Committees; improved induction of Chairs and a briefing to

minute takers.

Sociology Management

Economics

IMPROVEMENT AREA 4 – Professional Advice and Guidance What we mean is:

Provision of professional advice across a range of stakeholders (academic departments, corporate services, students, agents) IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS DEPARTMENT

26. Provision of professional advice across a range of stakeholders (academic departments, corporate services, students, agents).

27. Online survey of customers to ensure College Office activity is meeting customer needs and identify areas for improvement.

28. Improve communications of project wash-up outcomes to ensure lesson learnt are shared. 29. Develop metrics around appraisal, training, reduction of disciplinary/grievance cases. 30. Share intelligence about staff and departmental activities to inform College projects in departments – possibly

through better use of CSS Office meetings. 31. Develop service level agreements around turnaround times for responses to emails etc. 32. Create contact list of College Office staff based on ‘tasks’ for use on the website. 33. Work pro-actively with departments and central services to build up expertise, improve communication and

signposting regarding processes for Programme Approvals (cross-ref Improvement area 4. Quality Assurance). 34. Analyse feedback from surveys and act upon findings to ensure that professional advice and guidance meets the

needs of the customer.

College Office College Office

College Office College Office College Office

College Office College Office College Office

Criminology LILL

IMPROVEMENT AREA 5 – Quality Assurance What we mean is: Ensure standards meet accepted quality assurance levels Enable quality assurance of teaching

IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS DEPARTMENT 35. Act upon formal feedback and ensure action points carried though from periodic reviews, annual monitoring, Criminology



exam board stats, external examiners’ reports, Audit of SOPs. 36. Reduce delays in obtaining ‘eligibility to work in UK’ documentation in Administering the Fee-paid Tutor

Approvals process (to enable quality assurance of teaching). 37. Recording and monitoring of informal student complaints received locally within the department, and

responses.

LILL

Management

IMPROVEMENT AREA 6 – Marketing and Recruitment What we mean is: To improve for support marketing activities To improve support for student recruitment and retention

IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS DEPARTMENT 38. In-house marketing & recruitment group to concentrate on SoM/CLMS courses by researching trends &

environments. Continue to improve branding & products & produce cutting edge products. 39. Monitor and analyse data to identify reasons for withdrawal, application/registration conversion rates and

reasons for non-registration. 40. Provide unified admissions in the newly merged SoM ensuring a consistent approach both in terms of processes

and service offered. 41. Analyse conversion rates alongside regular ‘keeping warm’ activities with prospective students to enhance

recruitment.

Management LILL

Management

Sociology

IMPROVEMENT AREA 7 – Student Experience What we mean is: Training for PGR students

Quality of communication and information to students Streamline admissions processes

IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS DEPARTMENT 42. Address oversubscription on PGR training through development of registration system and adjust programme in

response to evaluation feedback. 43. Review existing communications and in particular consider social media as a form of communication to ensure

stakeholders are better informed. 44. Assess material on Blackboard and improve content for student support to improve consistency and accuracy of

information. 45. Take action as appropriate according to NSS and evaluation forms to improve the student experience.

College Office Management

Sociology

Sociology



46. Review existing processes to reduce application and decision making turnaround times. 47. Investigate strategies to further embed skills and employability into the curriculum.

Notes: Education and Media: service improvements will be made as part of administrative review implementation plan

Economics Economics

Documents

List of Appendices - University of Leicester · Appendix 5: How the Plan Impacts Elsewhere in the University . ... Work with the Division of Corporate Affairs and Planning and marketing