{"id":798,"date":"2021-08-17T14:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-08-17T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/?p=798"},"modified":"2021-08-17T11:49:28","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T10:49:28","slug":"ueb-blog-16-08-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/2021\/08\/17\/ueb-blog-16-08-21\/","title":{"rendered":"UEB Blog 16.08.21"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Professor Mark E. Smith, Vice-Chancellor<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-797 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2021\/08\/UEB-Blog-16.08.21.fw_.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"590\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2021\/08\/UEB-Blog-16.08.21.fw_.png 590w, https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2021\/08\/UEB-Blog-16.08.21.fw_-300x142.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Operating in Gold Command mode, UEB discussed several operational and campus issues, including looking at the start of the 21-22 academic year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Saliva-based testing, based on provision from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Facility will be our mainstay for testing during the autumn term. Where saliva testing is not practical or possible then Lateral Flow Device testing (LFD) will be offered as a back-up using kits as made available by NHS Test and Trace. Line managers are being asked to encourage more staff to register and make use of the available testing. Communications will be sent to students ahead of their arrival encouraging them to test before they travel to UoS, either by ordering a free test online or by collecting one from their local pharmacy. UoS expects students to test via LFD immediately they arrive in Southampton or Winchester, and then as soon as possible transition over to weekly saliva-based testing. SUSU is being asked to consider \u2018test before you play\u2019 guidance to be issued to sports teams, clubs and societies, especially when travelling away from UoS. We encourage all our students and staff to be vaccinated.<\/li>\n<li>The latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/coronavirus\/campus-life.page\">student and staff <strong>COVID cases<\/strong> dashboard<\/a> was reviewed. There was only a very small number of new cases in the staff and student populations.<\/li>\n<li>Several weeks ago, UEB had confirmed the recommendation of Education Silver that in-person teaching is a very important part of our offering, so it would be necessary for students to be in Southampton for the autumn term. UEB discussed in detail other possible approaches to teaching for PGT courses with very large fractions of overseas students. A number of options were considered, but it was agreed having a consistent approach of welcoming students to the UK was needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The meeting then reverted to normal UEB mode to discuss a range of other issues on the agenda:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Having missed both the 2020 and 2021 graduations through COVID-19 restrictions, UEB considered the approach to marking the achievements of our students who had missed out on physical events. It was agreed that events that were really significant, brought the cohorts back together again and had a real sense of celebration were necessary. Several options were considered, with UEB warmly endorsing the approach proposed to have really large scale events for these two cohorts, as well as for the 2022 graduates. This would be quite different from our conventional approach given the numbers involved and we would look at what we could learn from a new approach. The events would take place at St Mary\u2019s Stadium 20-22 July 2022. With equity of treatment being a key consideration, it was agreed that the winter 2021 graduation ceremonies would be subsumed into the summer 2022 celebrations.<\/li>\n<li>UEB looked at the final proposals for the new appraisal system, to take on board extensive feedback across the University. It agreed all staff (Levels 1-7) would have the same appraisal timeline 1 June to 31 August, with the numerical ratings being replaced by contribution descriptors. Only an overall assessment is now needed, rather than a rating for each objective. Moderation would be replaced by a \u201cconsistency check\u201d to ensure equity of treatment of staff across the University. A consequence of this will be the need for a revised Level 7 pay review methodology, removing the direct link to a numerical appraisal outcomes and proposals would be forthcoming on this. Colleagues across the University including the trade unions have helped shape the proposed changes. Following UEB\u2019s endorsement the proposal will be shared with the unions, who will then engage their members with the proposal.<\/li>\n<li>Alongside the changes proposed for the future of appraisal, it was agreed that whilst the existing process would continue with Level 7 appraisals commencing in September, we would not re-introduce the moderation or distribution curve ahead of the new system.<\/li>\n<li>Following the trialling of purchasing additional holiday as part of the 2020 Voluntary Measures it was clear this policy was very popular with staff. It was agreed that a new formal Additional Holiday Policy will be adopted such that staff can apply to purchase up to five days of additional leave. This would become available in September for the start of the 2021\/22 leave year (October 2021 \u2013 September 2022). UEB also noted that as part of the Future Ways of Working project, proposals would be made around updating our existing Flexible Working Policy and a review of the existing Career Break Policy.<\/li>\n<li>The Director of iSolutions updated UEB on the proposals for a five-year window for major projects in the IT space and the concomitant investments required. At this stage no specific approvals were being sought, but comments were invited on the overall package of proposals which had already been discussed at the IT Programme Board (ITPB). UEB welcomed the broad direction of travel.<\/li>\n<li>An on-going discussion at UEB, as well as across the rest of the University, is the developing Strategy. In preparation for final phase of consultation that will see a draft Strategy launched in September, UEB considered a small suite of KPIs to monitor its success. There was a wide-ranging debate over which KPIs best aligned with the goals in the Strategy. The ones finally chosen would need to be capable of robust measurement to track our progress, with particular emphasis of being able to show comparative performance.<\/li>\n<li>There was the regular review of the University <strong>Risk Register<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>UEB was updated on the appointment of the new Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Jo Swaffield currently the Head of the Department of Economics at York. UEB offered the Vice-President (Research and Enterprise) its warmest congratulations on his award of the Friend of Singapore public service medal in the recent National Day celebrations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With the August Bank Holiday, the next meeting of UEB will be in three weeks\u2019 time, on Tuesday 7 September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Professor Mark E. Smith, Vice-Chancellor Operating in Gold Command mode, UEB discussed several operational and campus issues, including looking at the start of the 21-22 academic year: Saliva-based testing, based on provision from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Facility will be our mainstay for testing during the autumn term. Where saliva testing is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ueb-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2021\/08\/UEB-Blog-16.08.21.fw_.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfzuzw-cS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions\/799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}