Communicator, Issue 28 (Winter 2009) - University of Portsmouth

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08 University update Long Service Awards 2009 This year’s Long Service Awards were held on Wednesday 21 October to recognise those staff who had completed 25 and 40 years’ service with the University and its predecessors. A total of 27 staff received awards, including five who had achieved 40 years’ service. A buffet lunch was held in the Nuffield Centre to mark the occasion, which 15 staff were able to attend with their guests and managers. Staff were presented with a certificate by the Vice-Chancellor, John Craven. In addition, the staff are able to select a gift of their own choice as a memento of their achievement. We offer our congratulations to all those receiving these awards. Let’s make it great – the New Theatre Royal sets its sights firmly on the future The New Theatre Royal (NTR), Portsmouth, launched its new fundraising campaign on 4 November, ‘Let’s Make it Great’. The campaign aims to raise money to develop the backlot, which was destroyed by fire in 1972. Development of this space, planned in collaboration with the University of Portsmouth, will give both the theatre and Portsmouth a tremendous boost. It will also give the best of our national and international theatre companies the eagerly awaited new stage and facilities they need to perform at the NTR. The plan is to re-house staff and students from the University’s School of Creative Arts Film and Media in the new theatre extension, allowing for even closer collaboration between the theatre and the University’s performing arts and music division. A new 150-seat community theatre space is also planned on the site, allowing local theatre and youth groups fantastic opportunities to develop and perform. It will thrust both the city’s new and established culture and the arts firmly into the limelight, heralding a new phase for this beautiful Victorian theatre. The campaign’s target is to raise £4 million. Over £772,000 has already been raised for the project thanks to the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire, Portsmouth City Council and Arts Council England. The New Theatre Royal’s fundraising activities will centre on the ‘Let’s Make it Great’ weekend, taking place from 15–17 January 2010. Communicator | Winter 2009 The weekend will consist of a plethora of theatre-based and open space events and performances. The University, Highbury College and ‘Be your Best Rock Challenge’ are among those who have already pledged their support for the weekend. Tim Macfarlane of Rock Challenge said: ‘We are extremely pleased to be involved with the ‘Let’s Make it Great’ campaign. The first ever UK Rock Challenge happened in Portsmouth. It is the hometown for many of our teams, so the arts and young people of the city are of great importance to us. To be able to support the theatre in this way is fantastic. We hope everyone in Portsmouth jumps on board and gets involved.’ The theatre is also delighted to announce that architectural firm Penoyre and Prasad have been selected to spearhead the building project. Ian Goodfellow, project leader for the company, confirmed today: ‘We are delighted to be selected to work with the New Theatre Royal to realise an extraordinary new vision for its cultural offer for Portsmouth and its dynamic new relationship with the University.’ Long awaited preliminary plot investigations will begin in February 2010. Re-launching the Institutional Repository An institutional repository is a collection of the scholarly output of an institution, such as journal articles and book chapters, usually in digital format. Currently we have a small repository available from the library website, but a group of staff, led by David Arrell, is looking at how we can improve and extend the existing collection. This is important for a number of reasons, one of the main ones being because the new Research Excellence Framework proposes using the number of citations as one measure of excellence. Research shows that adding material to a repository increases citations as the material is more easily discovered by search engines such as Google Scholar. The library will be aiding the process of discovery by adding good ‘metadata’, such as keywords, to describe the content. A good repository can also add to the reputation of an institution. In the current economic environment, finding freely available and credible information within repositories can only be a good thing. Currently we are scoping the project and testing a new version of the software, but if you have any questions or thoughts, please email roisin.gwyer@port.ac.uk.
The financial future The financial future We were told in June that our grant from the Funding Council, for the year now in progress, would be reduced by around £750k compared to the original grant allocation letter which we received in March. This is the result of a public spending cut – through which the government’s allocation to HEFCE will be reduced from April 2010. The same announcement indicated that we will face around a £2 million reduction in the academic year beginning in August 2010. It might eventually be more – even up to the point when a newly elected government announces an emergency budget after the election. It is very unlikely that we shall receive any increase next year to meet inflation, though our salary bill rises if only through the effect of increments and some costs (energy prices, library materials priced in Euros and so on) are not in our control. We are financially sound at present. Unlike some universities, we are not also dealing with a deficit that arose before the cuts were announced. We have not borrowed in the last 15 years and so we do not face a major burden of interest costs and repayments. Our financial position gives us the opportunity to consider carefully how we react to cuts, known and unknown, and to phase our reaction over a couple of years. We have asked all parts of the University to think how they would reduce their expenditure by five per cent (as well as make up a budget deficit if they already have one) from the baseline of the present year. This is more than the cuts that we currently know about, but the future is very uncertain and I would rather have a chance to take a broader view now than have to react quickly each time a government announces another cut. We are looking for ideas to simplify processes, reduce duplication, work more smartly and stop doing some things in order to free up resources for new activities. Removing small units of study and courses will be a priority, particularly as we are now confident of our ability to recruit students even if we reduce the number of programmes on offer. Over 60 per cent of our income is spent on staff, so it is not possible to reduce expenditure very much without reductions in the number of people we employ. A blanket hiring freeze is undesirable as it hits randomly, but those seeking replacement posts will be routinely asked to consider working out ways of appointing at a lower grade, and this may be the only alternative to not filling the vacancy. There will be a voluntary severance programme which will take account of the needs of the University. Directorate will decide whether to agree to each voluntary severance proposal. Any severances or unfilled vacancies arising since the 2009/10 budget was set will count towards savings even if they have already happened. Posts lost in this way are unlikely to be refilled, but losing several staff might lead to a recruitment of fewer new people at lower grades. If we need to reduce staffing in an area beyond what is possible through voluntary severance, we will follow our staff reduction policy, consult with the trade unions and maximise opportunities for redeployment. We cannot guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies, because we do not know the size of the cuts we may face, but I hope and believe that we can avoid having very many. 09 I know that all reductions in expenditure cause anxiety to colleagues and affect our ability to deliver to the ambitions set out in the strategic plan. I am committed to minimising the damage that cuts cause – but I think it right to explain openly the position that arises from forces beyond our control. Vice-Chancellor, John Craven Winter 2009 | Communicator
Page 1 and 2: Inside Issue 28 Communicator Newsle
Page 3 and 4: Editorial Editorial 03 Welcome to C
Page 5 and 6: PBS facilities refurbished Around c
Page 7: University update 07 Success for fi
Page 11 and 12: Graduates’ film success continues
Page 13 and 14: Review of HR policies Policy update
Page 15 and 16: Last Word Elsewhere in this edition

Communicator, Issue 28 (Winter 2009) - University of Portsmouth

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