Dear colleagues,
I hope you are well.
The Christmas break seems a while ago now, but I hope you had a chance to unwind and rest over the holiday. I also hope you enjoyed the graduation ceremonies! Graduation is such an uplifting way to start the year. Thank you to everyone involved, including all the staff who took part in the processions to support our graduates. The number of staff from most schools and institutes was fantastic and was very much appreciated by our graduates and their families.
We have passed two important milestones this week. First, we have submitted our institutional narrative to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The TEF is a national scheme run by our regulator, the Office for Students, which aims to assess the quality of educational provision at universities. Institutions are rated on their student outcomes data, and the results from the annual National Student Survey (NSS), alongside a narrative submission that describes the university’s particular context. Over the last few months, we have been preparing our narrative, which we submitted on 24 January. We will hear the outcome of the TEF process later in the year. The preparation of our narrative required a significant amount of work across the University, and I would like to thank all those involved. We will be publishing it on our website in due course, highlighting the areas across the University where excellent education is occurring.
Secondly, 25 January was this year’s UCAS deadline for prospective undergraduate students to submit applications. At time of writing, we have received over 40,000 applications, which is in line with last year. Applications from international students for undergraduate courses have increased by six per cent, which is important as, compared with most other Russell Group universities, our proportion of international students is low. At PGT level we are relatively early in the recruitment cycle. At the moment, applications from international students are up 16 per cent, and numbers from home students are about level with last year.
Cost of living
The rising cost of living continues to be a major worry. There is a lot of advice, support and guidance available via our employee assistance programme. Please do have a look, and please do reach out if you need help.
In relation to the nationally-negotiated annual pay award, the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has now written to the trade unions to confirm a final offer, of an uplift of up to eight per cent for staff on the lowest pay spine points, and five per cent for staff on or above spine point 26. This equates to a minimum eight per cent pay increase over two years for all staff, and up to 17 per cent increase for those on our lower salary scales. It includes the offer of making at least two per cent of the award for all staff from 1 February 2023, with the remainder being implemented as usual in August. The trade unions agreed to take this offer through their decision-making structures; however, while Unison is currently consulting members directly on the offer, UCU has already indicated that the offer is rejected. You will be aware from our HR Director Louise Lester’s email [PDF] that UCU has now announced further strike action for 18 days across February and March.
Queen Mary’s position in relation to this nationally-negotiated pay increase remains unchanged from my email sent in November 2022: subject to national bargaining, we are strongly supportive of the recent offer UCEA made, and of bringing forward some of this year’s settlement to enable us to make some of the pay award in February, with the rest to follow as usual in August.
This nationally-negotiated pay award is in addition to our local pay increase of 21 per cent to London Weighting, which we agreed in August 2022. The increases are also in addition to annual increments, which are automatically received by all staff on grades 1-7 who are not at the top of their scale, staff bonuses and academic promotions. The increases in pay should also be seen alongside the current 21.4 per cent of salary that is paid by the University towards pensions.
The academic promotion round closes very soon; if you are an academic do have a look and please consider whether you are eligible, or discuss submitting an application with your line manager. In the last round, 143 colleagues applied and 74 per cent were successful. The staff bonus scheme has now closed, and I hear there has been significant interest in and application to the scheme, and that the quality of applications is very high. I look forward to hearing from colleagues about the successful applications.
Investments in people
We continue to invest in new staff across our University. For example, in relation to the strategic hires in our Faculty of Science and Engineering, we recruited 15 new colleagues in the first recruitment round and are just beginning to embark on a second round of interviewing to look for an additional 30 people. Alongside investments in our faculties, over 100 additional new colleagues have joined us in Professional Services over the last year, particularly in student-facing roles.
Research update
I am pleased to report that we have been awarded an additional £2.46m from UKRI’s Research Capital Investment Fund to support state-of-the-art research infrastructure, including £360k as matched funding to support external equipment bids. We will use this money to invest in areas of research excellence across the University, to enhance our ability to do world-class research that builds on our strengths.
We will be publicising some more case studies under our Research Highways on our website shortly. Please do keep an eye on the website for research updates. In addition, a number of our staff have published thought leadership pieces.
Investments in our campuses
I wanted to bring you up to date with the ongoing development of our campuses. As you know, we are adding two floors to our library at Mile End: do have a look at the plans displayed near the development as they look fantastic. That work should complete this year. At Whitechapel, we are renovating and repurposing space in the Garrod Building to provide more facilities for students and staff. We are also partway through a programme of work on the Queens’ Building; the work on the second floor is complete, is well used by students and looks great.
We have been awarded £5.8m from the Office for Students to refurbish the ITL facilities, which is great news and will provide extra space for teaching.
I will write to you again when there is a further update to share.
Best wishes,
Colin
Professor Colin Bailey, CBE, FREng, BEng, PhD, CEng, FICE, FIStructE, MIFireEPresident and Principal