Campus News
March 20th, 2019
Following the March 2019 valuation of the USS pension, the University has responded to the latest employer consultation by Universities UK. The response confirms that the University would accept an increase in employer contributions, as well as contingent contributions if necessary, to resolve the latest valuation.
This would enable reassurance for scheme members over the short-term, and avoid more significant contribution increases for both members and employers under Rule 76, while allowing time for a long-term sustainable solution to be identified.
The response is published in full below and a summary of all universities’ responses has been published online.
University of Nottingham response – March 2019
The University agrees with the direction proposed in the consultation as a means of providing reassurance to scheme members and avoiding the more significant Rule 76 cost-sharing increases that both employers and scheme members would face in October 2019 and April 2020.
In considering the immediate way forward on the March 2018 valuation and taking each of the consultation questions in turn:
- Do you have any specific comments on the proposed assumptions for the 2018 valuation, including views on the proposed upper bookend and lower bookend?
The University of Nottingham supports the assumptions of the March 2018 valuation including the proposed contingent contributions.
- Do you support UUK putting forward a proposal for an arrangement for contingent contributions to the USS Trustee as it requested? If not, would you prefer to pay at the upper bookend level, or what would your preferred response be?
The University has stated previously that the maximum affordable employer contribution is 20%. Whilst at present we believe this would be affordable, the very significant cost pressures on universities as a result of Brexit, the wider economy and any proposed reduction in student fee levels resulting from the Augar Review, mean that it is unlikely to remain so in the longer term.
Contributions beyond this figure – i.e. the proposed upper bookend – would not be sustainable and would have significant impact on our teaching, research, community of staff and students, and our wider public benefit.
In the event that contingent contributions were to be triggered, to ensure an appropriate and accurate level of payment, the University proposes that a simultaneous valuation of the USS should be triggered alongside them. This should be accompanied by an acceleration of activity to identify the long-term sustainable solution for the benefit and reassurance of scheme members.
- Do you find the proposal for a contingent contributions arrangement set out in the Aon note acceptable, taking all factors into account? If not, what aspects would you wish to change?
The University supports the proposal as it enables resolution and reassurance for scheme members over the short-term while allowing time for a long-term sustainable solution to be identified.
In conclusion, the University of Nottingham continues to believe that a sustainable solution is required for the long-term provision of pension benefits to USS members. As such, we support the continued work of the Joint Expert Panel in improving the quality of the valuation and governance processes to ensure they are fit for purpose.
Tags: pension, Universities UK, USS pension, UUK
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March 19th, 2019
Improvements are in the pipeline for University of Nottingham colleagues who use the Business Travel and Expenses workspace to book train journeys.
Work is due to be completed in partnership with TrainLine for Business — a user-friendly service that many customers will already be familiar with.
The key changes will mean that users will no longer have to ‘pay and claim’ as they had to previously. Instead, a booking can be made using just a project code and a file will be passed into the finance system by the Travel and Expenses Team.
This change will result in a time saving, especially for regular train users, as well as a more streamlined workflow between users and the Finance Team.
Jeannette Harrison, Travel and Expense Services Manager at the University of Nottingham, said: “The switch to Trainline for Business will enable us to improve the service in a number of hidden ways as well as the great improvements for our customers.
“Last month alone we accommodated 750 passengers on trains across the country.
“We should take this opportunity to thank our passengers for using mobile phone tickets as much as possible to reduce printing and posting. We are also happy to see customers booking specific travel times as opposed to anytime tickets which dramatically reduces cost.
“The team has been working extremely hard towards bringing in the new system while maintaining workloads and they deserve a big thank you.”
Regular users of the travel and expenses services should be aware of changes to the University’s Travel and Expenses Policy which includes First Class travel exceptions, mileage limits and allowance, and the claims procedure.
One of the more significant policy changes reduces the period of time in which a person can claim from six months to three months.
Further improvements are also expected to be launched in the coming months: full updates can be found at the Travel and Expenses workspace page.
Tags: commute, expenses, Trainline for Business, travel, Travel and expenses
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March 19th, 2019
Tell us about your journeys to campus and be in with the chance of winning a £50 gift card.
The University of Nottingham has launched its staff and student travel survey to understand more about how you travel to, from and between University sites so that we can help to improve your journeys.
The travel survey is a great opportunity to give feedback on how we can enable staff and students to travel more safely and efficiently to our campuses, and to help shape future strategy.
The responses will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of existing initiatives and to assess progress towards achieving our objectives for reducing carbon emissions and traffic congestion.
A prize draw is open to everyone who completes the survey and chooses to provide their email address, with a chance to win one of five £50 gift cards for intu Victoria Centre.
We hope you can spare the time to complete the survey — it should take around 5-10 minutes.
The survey runs until Friday 12 April 2019. Complete the survey.
Tags: commute, sustainability, Travel survey
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March 15th, 2019
A new green technology to generate electricity from discarded cocoa pod husks is set to benefit African farming communities currently with little or no access to grid power.
The project, led by the University of Nottingham, aims to spawn an entirely new bio-fuel industry that would also improve socio-economic stability for cocoa producers in rural Ghana.
The Implementation of Bio-Rural Energy Scheme (IBRES) project, backed by the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund, aims to makes practical and economic use of the discarded cocoa pod husks.
In addition to energy production and distribution, local jobs would emerge for the collection and transportation, treatment, storage and processing of this potentially lucrative byproduct. A community energy cooperative model will also help the farmers to make money from their new bio-energy source and hence reduce poverty.
In addition to Professor Jo Darkwa, the Nottingham-led project team involves Dr John Calautit, Dr Mark Worall, Dr Yuehong Su and Nii Nelson, of the Buildings, Energy and Environment (BEE) Research group; Dr Alison Mohr, from the Institute of Science and Society; Dr Karen Robertson from the Advanced Materials Research Group and the School of Chemistry’s Professor Robert Mokaya.
Read more about this story on the News page.
Tags: bio fuel, cocoa pod husks, Global Challenges Research Fund, Green technology
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March 14th, 2019
Dr Lisa Carroll will join the University of Nottingham as its new Commercial Director on Monday 15 April 2019 to lead the strategic development of the University’s commercial activities.
Reporting to Chief Financial Officer Margaret Monckton, Lisa will be responsible for growing income to support the University’s teaching and research priorities, as well as reforming its purchasing and procurement processes to become easier for staff to use in securing materials and equipment.
Chief Financial Officer Margaret Monckton said: “I am delighted to welcome Lisa to Nottingham where she will take up a critical role at a critical time. While our University finances are in a good position, it is important to continue to grow our commercial activity to generate new funds to invest in our staff, our students, our teaching and our research.”
Dr Carroll said: “I am very pleased to be joining such a prestigious institution as its Commercial Director and look forward to working with colleagues across the University to secure new income streams to support its teaching and research. I also look forward to ensuring that purchasing and procurement at the University becomes easier and supports colleagues in achieving their aims.”
Lisa is currently Vice President of Materials Technology at Crown Holdings, a $11bn global manufacturing company, where she has shaped its strategy for global Research & Development. She was previously Group Director for Innovation & Technology at Rexam, a global company with 8,000 employees in 23 countries. Lisa has a PhD in Materials Science from the University of Oxford.
Tags: Commercial Director, Lisa Carroll
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March 14th, 2019
Views and comments are invited from all staff to a ‘Green Paper‘ consultation on the new University Strategy.
Staff can read more about this in the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s latest blog.
You can contribute your views via the New University Strategy webpage. The deadline for contributions is Tuesday 30 April 2019.
Consultation responses to the Green Paper will be used to produce a final draft strategy for further consideration across our community before it is put to the University Council in December.
‘Town hall’ events will be held in March and April where colleagues can discuss the Green Paper with the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.
All colleagues are invited to attend these events where at all possible.
- 3.15pm – 4.30pm, Friday 22 March: Sutton Bonington campus (A03 – Lecture Block)
- 2:00pm – 3:30pm, Wednesday 10 April: Jubilee campus (B52 – Business School South)
Further events will be hosted by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provosts at our China (Tuesday 2 April) and Malaysia (Thursday 4 April) campuses.
Tags: Strategy2020, University strategy
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March 13th, 2019
In her final blog in a Leadership and Management Academy (LMA) series looking at change management, Jaspal Kaur, Director of HR, explores the need to view change as a dynamic and discursive process that requires flexibility, adaptability and empathy to succeed:
“In my previous posts I’ve talked about the need to consider the emotional aspects of change and touched on the complexity of the challenges we face. In this final post of the series I wanted to look at how we can bring these strands together.
One of the messages that Vice-Chancellor Shearer West draws out in the videos that are part of the Leadership and Management Academy’s new change management resources is the concept of change as “a dynamic and discursive process”. Viewing change in this way gives us the opportunity to think beyond a mindset of change being a planned and managed approach which might initially be disruptive and then lead to stability towards a mindset of change being something that is continual, often uncertain, although something in which we can all play a part.
In this approach to change, whilst the desired destination might be known, the route to get there is determined through on-going discussion and an openness to ideas; it emerges in an agile way based on the knowledge expertise and abilities of the people affected. When we approach change in this frame of mind resistance is reduced because ownership of the change and the way it happens has the space to be empathetic to the needs of those affected by the change.
Along the way things may change as new knowledge or situations emerge, and the destination may need to be adjusted. Leaders need to be open to this, and comfortable to adapt to the situation. The need for change still exists, and things will still change, but the way we get to the destination (and sometimes the destination itself) is informed by what happens along the way.
This open approach needs to be applied in a balanced way, which is why empathy (as opposed to sympathy) is so important. If we’re acting with empathy, we’re understanding people’s reactions and taking on their points of view in an objective way, it’s about being able to spot the difference between people being uncomfortable with change and something being wrong with what you’re doing.
We need to ensure that we keep open our channels of communication, communicating the future vision and need for change, and ensuring that everyone is well informed about what’s going on.
Finally, as individuals we have to think about how we become more comfortable with uncertainty, how we increase our capacity to be adaptive, and how we make time to really listen to one another. It isn’t easy and it’s likely to be our biggest challenge. By understanding and adjusting our own responses to change is often the first step that can be taken.
And so, we have the opportunity to enhance the way that change is managed at the University, to build on our inherent strengths and to put ourselves in a position to take advantage of future opportunities. The resources that the Leadership and Management Academy have designed aim to help you to understand change and the approaches that work, and tools to put into practice when you’re facing change.”
Want to learn more? Visit the Leadership and Management Academy. You can also take a look at the other posts in this mini-series about change management:
Tags: change management, Leadership and Management Academy, LMA
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March 12th, 2019
We’ve launched a new campaign — #WeAreUoN — to recognise the enormous contribution our European colleagues make to the University, to Nottingham and to the UK.
These places would not be the thriving places they are without the hard work, creativity, ideas and dedication of our colleagues from around the world.
Our European colleagues in particular face uncertainty and worry in light of the political climate and continuing uncertainty around Brexit. With this in mind, we are holding a special event on Tuesday 19 March to hear their stories and celebrate their achievements. Register for the event.
Whatever the outcome of Brexit, the University will maintain its global outlook, which is so key to our success.
We are promoting the stories of a number of our European colleagues across the University’s communications and social media channels. Join us in celebrating our European colleagues online using the hashtag #WeAreUoN.
You can also view these stories in the gallery below:
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Arkadiusz Dowejko
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Carmen Tomas
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Elena Staves
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Gabriele Neher
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Judith Jesch
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Ana Oliveira
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Christina Lee
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Ruth Koro
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Sarah Sulaiman
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Elena Boto
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Heike Bartel
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Maria Jiminez
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Mia Bellusova
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Bruno Gran
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Chrysanthi Gallou
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Gianluca Sergi
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Saoirse O’Sullivan
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Stavros Pourikas
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Cris Constantinescu
Tags: #WeareUoN, Brexit, European, Global and Political Affairs Unit, GPAU
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March 11th, 2019
In her latest blog, the Vice-Chancellor writes about supporting our global community and the outlook ahead of this week’s Parliamentary votes.
Read the blog: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/vice-chancellor/blog/blog-019.aspx.
Tags: article 50, Brexit, EU referendum, shearer west, VC's blog, Vice-Chancellor's blog
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March 8th, 2019
International Student Recruitment are recruiting for additional invigilators to join the International English Language Testing System examination (IELTS) team.
The University of Nottingham is an approved test centre for the IELTS. It is designed to assess the language ability of candidates who want to study or work where English is the language of communication. The centre facilitates tests every month throughout the year on Jubilee Campus to internal and external candidates according to strict operating regulations and protocol.
This vacancy is open to both internal and external UoN applicants, and the closing date is 5pm, Tuesday 2 April. Further details can be found on the website.
It will be necessary for all applicants to be available on the following dates:
- Interview/assessment: Tuesday 30 April or Wednesday 1 May 2019
- Training session (paid): Tuesday 14 May 2019 (all day)
- 1st invigilation session: Saturday 18 May or Saturday 1 June 2019
Applications forms are available via the website, and should be returned with a copy of your CV and a covering letter outlining how you meet the criteria to ielts@nottingham.ac.uk.
Tags: Exam invigilator, IELTS, recruitment
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