The Green Paper, Nurse Review and key risks were to the fore in the latest open meeting for administrative staff.
Universities are facing considerable and wide-ranging challenges as the higher education sector braces itself for some of the most profound changes in more than a generation.
That was the key message from the Registrary at his termly update for University administrative staff last week. The University currently has four red risks on its strategic risk register: ‘government policy’, ‘cyber security’, ‘financial health’ and ‘research'.
Speaking at the UAS Open Meeting for University Administrative Staff, Dr Jonathan Nicholls said the proposed reforms outlined in the recent Green Paper and Sir Paul Nurse’s review of the UK Research Councils amounted to the most significant shake-up of higher education since the mid-1980s.
A number of these proposals had been discussed in the media during the months and weeks leading up to the publication of the Green Paper, including the introduction of a Teaching Excellence Framework, a renewed emphasis on social mobility and widening participation, and a commitment to accelerate ways in which new providers could enter the market and access public money.
But the most important issues, he said, were those that the Green Paper had been noticeably quiet on – such as the architecture for regulation, and the future organisation and distribution of public money for teaching and research.
With HEFCE likely to be abolished, an issue of fundamental importance made explicit in the paper was the proposed separation of teaching and research money.
The former would likely come under direct control of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, or a new Office for Students. The latter, as described in the Nurse Review, was likely to be overseen by a new body called Research UK, which would also provide strategic oversight of the seven Research Councils.
Also mentioned in the Nurse Review was the concept of ‘place’, which effectively takes an interest in how research money can find its way to regions such as the North West, South West and Wales.
While further detail is still to come, Dr Nicholls warned that universities would need to stomach increasing political interest in higher education. When viewed in a wider context that took into account the possibility of Brexit (which threatens the ability to access EU funding, as well as the free movement of talented post docs and other research staff) it is easy to see why many in the sector fear a genuine erosion of universities' freedoms.
How is Cambridge responding to these challenges? Dr Nicholls highlighted the work of the Financial Strategy Advisory Group, which is taking a 20-year view of Cambridge’s financial resilience, and the vital contribution that philanthropy can make to research and teaching activities.
He also spoke of the University's need to continue to think boldly and at a scale, whether via its ambitious and challenging capital plan, or through strategic and tactical partnerships - both internal and external.
People and efficient administration were also vital. There was important work underway in the UAS to refresh the University's HR strategy, while new senior appointments, including Emma Rampton as Academic Secretary and Nick Brooking as Director of Sport, had been made.
The UAS continued to restructure in a way that best supported the University's priorities in an uncertain and difficult climate.