Campus News
Bridging the gap: learning lessons as we transition to a ‘new normal’ way of working
May 25th, 2021
Kevin Ellis, Chairman and Senior Partner of PwC (Industrial Economics, 1984), will be giving a talk on transitioning to a ‘new normal’ hybrid way of working and what that might look like in the near future.
Join us on Wednesday 30 June between 12.30pm and 1.30pm to hear from Kevin, who has been at the helm supporting 22,000 staff across the UK as they have worked through the Covid-19 pandemic and are now transitioning, in part, back to the workplace.
With his down-to-earth attitude and reassuringly straight-forward recognition that it’s the people in the organisation that really matter, Kevin will share his insights into the opportunities, challenges and lessons learnt from the on-going process of transitioning to a ‘new normal’ hybrid way of working, including why he places a strong focus on well-being and mental health in the workplace, and why he thinks ‘presenteeism’ is dead.
Kevin will also share the personal learning he has gained since graduating from the University of Nottingham in 1984, starting as a graduate trainee with PwC, to 33 years on being elected Chairman and Senior Partner of this leading professional services company.
Book your place and put forward a question for Kevin by clicking on the link below.
Tags: hybrid working, Kevin Ellis, PwC
Posted in Announcements, News | 1 Comment »
PVC EDI Blog: Black Lives Matter – Anniversary of death of George Floyd
May 25th, 2021
In her latest blog, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and People Professor Sarah Sharples looks back at the past year since the death of George Floyd and provides an update on the university’s action plan to tackle racial inequality.
Read the blog here.
Tags: Black Lives Matter, BLM, edi, EDI blog, Equality Diversity and Inclusion, Professor Sarah Sharples
Posted in Announcements, News | Comments Off on PVC EDI Blog: Black Lives Matter – Anniversary of death of George Floyd
Supporting people through Covid-19 – New webinars available for bookings
May 24th, 2021
As we continue to review our practices in response to Covid-19, the LMA have launched the latest webinars for leaders and managers to provide support as colleagues continue to return to campus.
These 50 minutes webinars are open to all university staff and are designed to provide a space for shared experiences, information and support.
Feeling good about health and fitness
Practical advice and tips for you and your teams for staying healthy. This webinar lead by colleagues from the UoN Sports Team is packed of practical hints, tips and activities for keeping you and your team healthy as we come out of the pandemic.
Book here
Emerging from the pandemic: HR guidance and information for supporting team members as they return to campus
There are many practical considerations that need to be made before allowing colleagues to return to campus, with specific processes to be followed to ensure safety for our staff, students and wider University community. In this webinar members of the HR team will walk you through some of the things you need to be aware of, some of the scenarios you might be facing, and how to respond to these. This webinar compliments the updated Return to Operations – Manager’s Guide (HR).
Book here
Emerging from the pandemic: Wellbeing conversations
This webinar will explore how to support staff as they re-integrate into broader social and physical spaces and find ways to re-adjust to post pandemic circumstances. We will have an opportunity to share experiences and discusses what we have learnt during the pandemic about health and wellbeing and importantly, how to have meaningful wellbeing conversations with staff.
Book here
Emerging from the pandemic: Hybrid working – team engagement and cohesion
With some team members returning to campus – possibly not in their normal location, and others working from home, understanding how to support and manage a dispersed team is essential. This webinar, led by Carol Steed, will consider how to keep people connected and still feeling together as a team. We’ll also explore the impacts of a hybrid working approach and how to manage this as part of your leadership practice.
Book here
Emerging from the pandemic: practical considerations when bringing your team members back to campus (H&S)
Keeping staff, students and our University community safe when back on campus is our highest priority. This webinar, led by Sarah Watson from the Health and Safety Team will provide you with the latest updates. We’ll also be explaining the preparation you need to do if you are returning to campus.
Book here
Emerging from the pandemic: Long Covid19 – Rehabilitation and support for staff
As the impacts of Long-Covid19 become better understood, it’s important to support staff as they manage their health with Long-Covid. Led by Dr Jain Holmes, this webinar will build an understanding of the effects of Long Covid19 and take you through the rehabilitation and support mechanisms you can put in place to ensure the care and safety of your staff with Long Covid19 and other long-term health conditions.
Book here
Tags: Leadership and Management Academy, LMA, webinars
Posted in Announcements | Comments Off on Supporting people through Covid-19 – New webinars available for bookings
The Breakfast Club returns for 2021
May 24th, 2021
The Breakfast Club is returning in 2021, with sessions coming up in July.
The Breakfast Club is a space for showcasing interesting ideas and innovations in the Teaching and Learning Space.
It is supposed to be low-key and experimental; a place for exploring new ideas informally and to get peer feedback for further development.
Last year, the Breakfast Club arose due to the cancellation of the normal Teaching and Learning Conference. It saw over 1,000 attendees across the 17 sessions, with papers from all faculties and Professional Services [Moodle login required].
Starting on Tuesday 13 July 2021, the Breakfast Club will run every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for the last three weeks of July (weeks commencing 12th, 19th, 26th), from 9am-10am BST.
Each session will feature two 20-minute papers, with opportunities for questions. Staff from all job families and campuses are encouraged to attend and to present.
Please note the deadline of Monday 14 June 2021 for the submission of the abstracts.
If you have any questions, please contact UAZDCL@nottingham.ac.uk
The call for papers can be found here.
Sign up for the Breakfast Club here.
Tags: peer feedback, professional services, teaching and learning, The Breakfast Club
Posted in Announcements, News | Comments Off on The Breakfast Club returns for 2021
Parking charges suspended until the end of the permit year
May 24th, 2021
Parking charges will be suspended until 31 August 2021 and reintroduced on 1 September 2021 when the new permit year begins.
Charges have been suspended since 5 November 2020 when Nottinghamshire went into lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Currently, as long as staff and associates show they are part of the University (either using an old or current permit or day pass obtained from the gatehouses), they can park freely on campus.
Students who have a current permit will also be able to continue parking on campus and can apply for a refund below.
Staff and Associates will receive an email in July from the parking team inviting them to apply for a permit for 2021/22. There are a range of different options available depending on individual needs.
Students will need to apply in early September once they have a current term address registered in Campus Solutions. Students should not apply before September as the team will be unable to process applications before then. Students with queries should direct them to parking@nottingham.ac.uk
Refunds- action required
Refunds are now available for students, staff and associates who paid for their 2020/21 permits in full. There is also the option to take forward the refund towards the cost of a new permit. Anyone wishing to obtain a refund should send an e-mail to parking@nottingham.ac.uk with their vehicle registration number and a contact telephone number by 30 June 2021.
Please note that if you pay for your permit by monthly instalments these will have ceased when parking charges were suspended and there is no further action required. Unused voucher permits that have past their expiry date can be exchanged for a new book (minus vouchers already used) for use in the next permit year.
Information on permit options can be found on our Estates webpages. Any queries regarding your options should be made to parking@nottingham.ac.uk.
Tags: car parking, parking, parking permits, travel
Posted in Announcements, News | Comments Off on Parking charges suspended until the end of the permit year
Campus Life Director to leave university
May 24th, 2021
Campus Life Director Andy Winter is set to leave the university at the end of July, to become Director of Student Support at the University of Sheffield.
Andy has been Campus Life Director since March 2017. This followed five years at the Nottingham Students’ Union as Director for Membership Services.
Heading up the Campus Life team means Andy has been responsible for a diverse range of departments, including Accommodation Services, Residential Experience (Hall Wardens and Tutors), Student Welfare – including the Chaplaincy, Counselling, Health Promotions and the Mental Health team), Investigations and Conduct, Childcare Services and Off-Campus Student Affairs.
An interim director will be brought in to cover Andy’s role while plans are made for the recruitment process.
Deputy Registrar Stephen McAuliffe said: “Andy has been a huge asset to the University, working tirelessly to support student retention and success. He goes to a new more senior opportunity with our thanks and good wishes. He will certainly be a tough act to follow”
Andy said: “I’m sad to be leaving Nottingham and the many friends I’ve made over the last nine years, but am excited about the new opportunity at Sheffield.”
Tags: Andy Winter, Campus Life, Campus Life director
Posted in Announcements, News | Comments Off on Campus Life Director to leave university
USS 2020 Valuation: Consultation response and staff survey results
May 24th, 2021
The university has submitted its response to the Universities UK (UUK) consultation with university employers on the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which seeks views on UUK’s alternative set of proposals to ensure a valuable, affordable, inclusive, and sustainable scheme for their staff for the long term.
The response also includes the results of the university’s survey of USS scheme members, or those who are eligible to be members, to reflect your views on the future of the scheme.
You can read a copy of the consultation response and the results of the staff survey here.
The Russell Group of leading research-intensive universities has also published a statement of principles agreed by all members of the Group in support of the UUK alternative proposals. You can read the statement in full here.
Background
In March 2021 the USS Trustee, the body which manages the pension scheme on behalf of university employers, announced that the cost to maintain current benefits would need to increase substantially to maintain its current benefits.
Currently, members contribute 9.6% of their salary into the scheme, and the university as employer contributes a further 21.1.%. Under the USS proposals, it is likely that total contributions will need to rise by a combined minimum of 11% to retain current benefits for the future.
UUK’s alternative proposals
Universities UK has outlined alternative proposals for tackling the scheme’s increasing costs, sizeable deficit, and high member opt-out rate. If adopted by the USS Trustee, this should reduce headline costs and provide scheme members with valuable pension benefits at sustainable and affordable contribution rates.
The UUK proposals include employers offering additional financial backing, known as ‘covenant support,’ to lessen the rise in contributions which, considered alongside other reforms, could enable a significant defined benefit element to be preserved at current contribution levels. The proposals would also introduce a new, short-term flexible option for the growing number of early career staff who are currently being priced out of the scheme.
The University of Nottingham’s employer response is supportive of the UUK alternative proposal in its entirety, provided that it can be delivered without any further increase in contribution rates for members and employers.
As stated in the consultation response, the UUK proposal requires all parties to compromise to reach agreement: USS to revisit its valuation assumptions; employers to support debt monitoring; and employers and members to accept some benefit reform.
Supplementary information is also available on the USS 2020 valuation webpages.
Posted in News, Uncategorized | Comments Off on USS 2020 Valuation: Consultation response and staff survey results
Changes to personal file storage (Z: Drive)
May 21st, 2021
It has never been more urgent to migrate your Z: Drive data to OneDrive.
As you might remember, last year we communicated that the university will be removing the personal file store (Z: Drive) service. The project has now restarted, and we are proceeding with this essential change.
The Z: Drive has reached its end of serviceable life and you must migrate important and current data now.
Chief Digital Officer, David Hill said: “Our existing storage technologies have certainly served us well but are now in need of costly upgrades and replacements.
Maintaining the existing drives carries growing risk, and this is our opportunity to bring about a new way of storing our data.”
Action required – migrate your Z: Drive data now
From Monday 21 June, all Z: Drives will be restricted to read-only. This means you will no longer be able to save new data or make changes to existing data. Following this, all access to Z: Drives will be removed by end of July 2021 (date to be confirmed).
For guidance including our simple step by step guide, visit our SharePoint page.
Please note, if you currently use EndNote Desktop and your EndNote library is synced to your Z: Drive, you will need to update this by following the details provided here – Managing your EndNote Desktop Library. Ensure you also update any other applications to make sure data isn’t saved automatically to Z: Drive.
Posted in News | 2 Comments »
Global Engagement Strategic Delivery Plan launched
May 21st, 2021
The Strategic Delivery Plan (SDP) for Global Engagement has been launched.
Pro-Vice Chancellor for Global Engagement Professor Robert Mokaya writes about the new SDP and what the strategy means to him.
Read the blog or visit the university’s Strategy pages for more.
Posted in News | Comments Off on Global Engagement Strategic Delivery Plan launched
Equality Impact Assessments
May 20th, 2021
In order to make it easier for staff to complete and submit Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs), the university recently reviewed our approach, process and templates and relaunched them in July 2020.
To support this, the UoN Equality Impacts SharePoint site includes information and guidance for staff, along with updated templates available to download and a narrated presentation to explain the process.
What are EIAs?
Equality Impact Assessments are an essential part of the university’s approach to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), ensuring we embed consideration of protected characteristics throughout all our decision-making, programmes, projects, policies and practices. This is also a legal requirement of the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Duty.
A number of EIAs were undertaken as part of the Covid-19 recovery programme and others have been completed since then for new policies, practices, projects and programmes. We currently have approximately 80 EIAs that have been submitted to the Strategic Change Unit and would like to ensure we are capturing all EIAs undertaken across all Faculties and Professional Service Departments. This will support us in sharing our learning and assuring the EDI Committee that we are fulfilling our responsibilities in this area.
How to submit an EIA
Any EIAs being undertaken across the university should be submitted to scu@nottingham.ac.uk. Once you have completed your assessment and had this approved in line with the procedure, the EIA should be submitted to ensure we are able to build our library of EIAs and publish any that are undertaken at a University level.
Planning, Performance & Strategic Change will anonymise and publish all university-level EIAs on the SharePoint site to ensure transparency and share good practice.
The EDI Committee has oversight of the Equality Impact Assessment process and an audit will be undertaken on EIAs each year to report to them.
Training for staff is available through University Short Courses and specific sessions within Faculties and Professional Service departments can be provided where capacity allows.
3 further sessions have been agreed for the following academic year:
- Tuesday 13 October, 9.30-12.30
- Thursday 2 December, 9.30-12.30
- Wednesday 26 January, 9.30-12.30
Please contact scu@nottingham.ac.uk if you have any queries relating to EIAs or the training available.
Posted in News | 2 Comments »