Council, 13 May 2024 SSO

University of Oxford

Council

13 May 2024, MCR, OUP, Walton Street, Oxford

Unreserved Agenda

Agendum number

Item and paper reference

Purpose

Classification

Quorum is set out in Council Regulations 13 of 2002 ‘Regulations for Council’ “A quorum is one third plus one of those members eligible to vote upon Council business (rounded to the nearest integer)”.  There are currently 27 voting members of Council so quorum is 10.

140

Apologies for absence

141

Declaration of conflicts of interest  [012-COUN-231030-P refers]

Members of Council will be asked to declare any interest that could give rise to conflict in relation to any item on the agenda at the beginning of the item in question.  All interests so disclosed will be recorded in the minutes of Council.  If the chair of the meeting deems it appropriate, the member shall absent themselves from all or part of Council’s discussion of the matter.

In accordance with the University’s Conflict of Interest Policy, Council is asked to note the information provided on the management of conflicts of interest in relation to Council business.

Committee governance

142

Unreserved minutes of the meeting held on 22 April 2024

Approval

Confidential

143

Matters Arising from 11 March 2024 meeting of Council not otherwise on the agenda

Access and Participation Plan

Approval

Internal

Chair’s Unreserved Business

144

Vice-Chancellor’s unreserved business and selected highlights

Report on Chairs Action Taken – Oxford University Press and Hayes House

Information

Internal

For approval

145

General Purposes Committee report from 18 March 2024 and 29 April 2024 meetings.

1. Changes to Statute XI
2. Changes to Statute XVI

Approval

Internal

Public

Items below this line are for receipt and/or approval, without discussion
A member of the Committee may request that any item be brought above the line for discussion. Requests should be made by 5pm on the Friday preceding the meeting, and if possible, with an explanation so as to facilitate any necessary preparation for discussion (Council’s Standing Orders 2023/24, para 26). Please send requests to council@admin.ox.ac.uk

For approval

146

General Purposes Committee report from 18 March 2024 and 29 April 2024 meeting

Approval

Internal

147

Report from Finance Committee: Interim arrangements for property management for Court Place Gardens

Approval

Confidential

148

PRAC Report: Space Allocation for New Radcliffe House

Approval

Internal

For note

149

Vice-Chancellor’s Unreserved Business below the line

To note

Public

150

Q2 Forecast 

To note

Internal

151

JRAAB Annual Report

To note

Internal

Close by 14:30

Next full meeting of Council: 13:15 – 17:30, 17 June 2024

Items already on the agenda are listed below:

Investment Committee Annual Report

OUP Annual Report

OUP Financial Statements

Head of Division Annual Report – MPLS

Collegiate University EDI Strategy Plan

Vision Zero Working Group

Strategic Review Professional Services

Strategic Student Number Planning

Annual Report – Head of GLAM

Proctors and Assessor Demitting Address

Annual Report Joint Committee on EDI

Proctors Complaint Report

CRDRF Annual Report

University of Oxford

COUNCIL

Minutes of the Unreserved Meeting held at 13:15 on 13 May 2024

in the MCR, OUP, Walton Street, Oxford

Present

Professor Irene Tracy

Vice-Chancellor (Chair)

Professor Thomas Adcock

Senior Proctor

Professor Proochista Ariana

Elected member of Congregation

Wendy Becker

External member

Professor Ben Bollig

Assessor

Professor Sir Rory Collins

Elected member of Congregation

Professor Patricia Daley

Elected member of Congregation (Teams)

Professor Cécile Fabre

Elected member of Congregation

Tom Fletcher

Elected member of Conference of Colleges

Dame Helen Ghosh

Head of Conference of Colleges

Professor Nandini Gooptu

Elected member of Congregation

Professor Patrick Grant

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, (Internal Vice-Chair) Co-opted member

Professor Daniel Grimley

Head of Division (Humanities)

Charles Harman

External member (External Vice-Chair)

Professor Richard Hobbs

Elected member of Congregation

Nicholas Kroll

External member

Professor Conall MacNiocall

Junior Proctor

Sharmila Nebhrajani

External member

Professor Jim Naismith

Head of Division (Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences)

Professor Timothy Power

Head of Division (Social Sciences)

Professor Diego Sanchez-Ancochea

Elected member of Congregation

Professor Alex Schekochihin

Elected member of Congregation

Professor Gavin Screaton

Head of Division (Medical Sciences)

Professor Sam Wolfe

Elected member of Congregation

Professor Krina Zondervan

Elected member of Congregation

Attending

Gill Aitken

Registrar (Teams)

Professor Alex Betts

Local and Global Engagement Officer

Simon Boddie

Chief Financial Officer

Elizabeth Botwright

Head of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office

James Colman

Director of Public Affairs

Dr Stephen Conway

Interim Deputy Registrar

Sarah Cowburn

Senior Assistant Registrar (Governance)

Liesl Elder

Chief Development and Alumni Engagement Officer

Danial Hussain

President Oxford University Student’s Union

Dr Markos Koumaditis

HR Director

Andrew Mackie

Director of Legal Services and General Counsel (from item 144)

Lara McCarthy

Head of Governance

Richard Ovenden

Head of GLAM

Professor David Prout

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Planning and Resources)

Professor Tim Soutphommasane

Chief Diversity Officer

Professor Anne Trefethen

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (People + Digital)

Professor Martin Williams

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education)

Antony Willott

Director of Planning and Council Secretariat

Dr Hilary Wynne

Early Career Researcher

Minute

Item

140

Apologies for absence

Professor Chas Bountra (Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Innovation)), Sir Chris Deverell (External member), Professor Sir Charles Godfray, Nicholas Harris (VP PG Education and Access) and Jennifer Lynam (VP UG Education and Access)

141

Declarations of Interest  (012-COUN-231030-P refers)

No new declarations were made.

Committee Governance

142

Unreserved minutes of the meeting held on 22 April 2024 142-COUN-240513-C

DECISION: Council approved the unreserved minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2024.

143

Lara

Matters Arising from 11 March 2024 meeting of Council not otherwise on the agenda (previously 102-COUN-240311-C)

Access and Participation Plan (APP)

The Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) introduced this item reminding Council that the first draft of the APP had been discussed at the February 2024 Council meeting.  The APP was an Office for Students (OfS) requirement that just looked at UK (home) undergraduate students and would cover the period from October 2025 to September 2029. The format was set by the OfS and the paperwork in front of Council would require further grouping and formatting. There were a number of interventions occurring across the collegiate University, involving local schools that the wider public should be made aware of.

Council agreed that the work being done was impressive.  Council also agreed that it would be good to have a broader conversation about postgraduate and international student access, and that this might be framed around consideration of the Graduate Access and Recruitment Strategy which is currently in development.

DECISIONS:

Council:

1. Noted the current draft of the Access and Participation Plan (APP).
2. Approved the targets for reducing gaps in admission rates and awarding of good (2.1 or better) degrees.
3. Approved the intervention strategies outlined in the APP.
4. Agreed to send any detailed comments and suggestions to Helen Charlesworth by 17 May 2024
5. Delegated authority to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) to approve the final version for submission to the OfS by 31 May 2024.

Chair’s Unreserved Business

144

Vice-Chancellor’s unreserved business and selected highlights

Report on Chairs Action Taken– Oxford University Press and Hayes House

The Vice-Chancellor reported that she had taken action on behalf of Council to expedite putting to Congregation a resolution on a space allocation to the Finance Division. In order to save money on rent and improve space efficiency, the University intended to surrender early its leases at Beaver House (ground floor currently occupied by the Finance Division) and to use available space within OUP as decant space for the Finance Division. The initial period of the allocation would be approximately three years from 16 September 2024. The Chief Financial Officer confirmed that this was a very positive move in terms of University finances and space efficiency objectives.

Other business

• The Vice-Chancellor updated Council on the events that had been, and would be, taking place to celebrate the Chancellor’s retirement and thank him for his extraordinary service to the University, including:

• A spectacular dinner for the Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors (CCB) that had been held in the Divinity School. The Chancellor and his wife had had a wonderful time, celebrating with donors from far and wide, and had been presented with numerous gifts including a botanic rose, a CCB bonnet, a memory book, and a picture of the Handkerchief Tree planted by the Chancellor in the Botanic Garden on the occasion of the Garden’s 400th birthday.
• The Chancellor had attended the topping out ceremony for the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and the Bannister Miles events (see below)
• Encaenia in June (ceremony and Garden Party)
• Garden Party in June (part of the Professional Services Garden Party)
• A celebratory dinner (21 June) to which Council members would be invited

• Community and track events had been held earlier this month to mark the 70th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile. Thanks were due to the Local and Global Engagement Officer and to the OU Athletics Club and OU Cross Country Club for organising these very successful events. Two World Athletics Heritage Plaques had been awarded to honour OUAC and Sir Roger Bannister. In the elite race at the end of the event four athletes ran sub four minute miles.
• The topping out ceremony for the new Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities had taken place earlier this month, beginning with an afternoon of cultural activities and culminating in the symbolic placement of a yew branch taken from a 379-year-old yew tree from the University’s Botanic Gardens. Thanks were due to the Head of the Humanities Division and to John Fulljames, Director of Oxford University’s Humanities Cultural Programme, for such a thoughtfully executed event.
• The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards ceremony had taken place at the Sheldonian Theatre earlier this month, followed by a drinks reception at the Exams School. There had been 250 award entries this year, with 1,500 individuals included in the nominations. The opportunity to celebrate outstanding talent and commitment to excellence, at a ceremony and social event had been much appreciated by those attending. Thanks were due to Dan Selinger and his team for organising.
• The gift of £115m from the Uehiro Foundation for the Humanities endowment had now been received. The Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics would be  re-named to be an institute and receive £100m. One college would receive a gift of £10m and another £5m. Congratulations were due to the Division, the Centre, the Development team and all those involved in securing the gifts.
•  

For approval

145

General Purposes Committee report from 18 March 2024 and 29 April 2024 meetings.

1. Changes to Statute XI  145(i)-COUN-240513-P and 145(i)-COUN-240513-I

DECISIONS:

1. Approved the changes to Statute XI: University Discipline and the consequential amendments to Statute IX concerning Officers of the University and Statute XII concerning Academic Staff and the Visitatorial Board, and related amendments subject to further clarification of section (2)(c) relating to reputational damage, freedom of speech and academic freedom.

Council voted: 2 abstentions, 3 against and 19 for

2. Noted the resourcing plan.

2. Changes to Statute XVI 145(ii)-COUN-240513-P

Bodley’s Librarian introduced this item, explaining that an amendment was proposed to part B of Statute XVI (intellectual property) to incorporate ‘rights retention’. Rights retention was a legal mechanism that supported the University of Oxford’s preference for the ‘green’ (or self-archiving) route to open access. It would support the University’s strategic approach to open access publication by enabling immediate open access of author-accepted manuscripts of journal articles and conference proceedings. It also allowed researchers to comply with their funders’ open access policies where they required immediate open access publication of journal articles and conference proceedings, but where the chosen journal did not provide a compliant route, or there was no funding to pay for open access publication charges. A growing number of Russell Group HEIs already had rights retention established in their policy frameworks and, at Oxford, it was now proposed to move forward from the pilot stage (which had been an opt-in approach, launched in January 2023) into implementation where researchers would have the option to ‘opt out’ of rights retention applying to individual works. The potential risks to publishers were mitigated by the broad approach being taken across the sector.

Council was supportive of the proposals. The Head of the MPLS Division thanked Bodley’s Librarian for the engagement with his division.

DECISION: Council approved the proposed changes to Statute XVI Property, Contracts, and Trusts.

Items below this line were for receipt and/or approval, without discussion

For Approval

146

General Purposes Committee report from 18 March 2024 and 29 April 2024 meeting 146-COUN-240513-I

DECISIONS:

Council:

1. Approved the draft terms of reference for the review of the part-time role of the Assessor, and the proposed membership of the review group (see Annex A)

Council approved changes to:

2. Council Regulations 3 of 2004, concerning the employment of University staff (see Annex B)
3. Council Regulations 15 of 2002, concerning Part 2: Education Committee (see Annex C)
4. Council Regulations 1 of 2012, concerning the Student Fitness to Study Panel (see Annex D)
5. Council Regulations 2 of 2004: concerning membership of the Committee for the Ruskin School of Art (see Annex E)
6. Council Regulations 15 of 2002 Part 12: Strategic Capital Steering Group and Council regulations 15 of 2002 Part 35: Planning and House Strategy Group (see Annex F)

Council Regulations 19 of 2002, concerning regulations of Faculty Boards (see Annex G

147

Report from Finance Committee: Interim arrangements for property management for Court Place Gardens 147-COUN-240513-C

DECISIONS:

Council:

1. noted that it would be necessary to enter into interim arrangements for the letting and management of Graduate Accommodation delivered via the Legal and General JV in advance of either the operationalisation of OUPM as envisaged by the Court Place Garden project agreement or such other alternative arrangement as may be agreed by the University and Legal and General,
2. approved delegation of the interim arrangements to the Director of Estates.

148

PRAC Report: Space Allocation for New Radcliffe House 148-COUN-240513-I

DECISION: Council approved (for onward referral to Congregation for approval) the extension of an allocation of approximately 2,118 sqm NUA within New Radcliffe House (building 553) to the Department of Experimental Psychology, for a period of approximately five months, 21 April 2025, until 30 September 2025, or until relocation to the Life and Mind Building (building 269).

To note

149

Vice-Chancellor’s Unreserved Business below the line 149-COUN-240513-P

DECISION: Council noted the report.

150

Q2 Forecast  150-COUN-240513-I

DECISION: Council noted the Q2 forecast noting in particular the impact of the reduced pension contributions.

151

JRAAB Annual Report 151-COUN-240513-I

DECISION: Council approved the JRAM allocations.

Next full meeting of Council: 13:15 – 17:30, 13 May 2024

Items already on the agenda are listed below:

Investment Committee Annual Report

OUP Annual Report

OUP Financial Statements

Head of Division Annual Report – MPLS

Collegiate University EDI Strategy Plan

Vision Zero Working Group

Strategic Review Professional Services

Strategic Student Number Planning

Annual Report – Head of GLAM

Proctors and Assessor Demitting Address

Annual Report Joint Committee on EDI

Proctors Complaint Report

CRDRF Annual Report