Court

Court report by Peter Evans, administrative secretary

With spring in the air, the Court at its March meeting was looking forward with enthusiasm to its 'away-day' in May, for which a provisional programme was approved. Unlike last year, however, the 'away-day' will not be residential - nor really 'away' either, as it was agreed to use the excellent facilities at West Park Hall. Following the successful experiment at Dunkeld in 2001, the 'away-day' will now be an annual event, giving Court members the opportunity to discuss a range of strategic issues at greater length than is possible at a normal business meeting. It also allows lay members to become more familiar with the detail of University activities.

Constitutional amendments were as thick on the ground as spring crocuses, arising mainly from the decision to appoint a second Vice-Principal. This single change requires no less than 18 amendments to the University's Charter, Statutes and Ordinances.

The vernal mood continued with some brisk house-keeping decisions. The Chancellor, Sir James Black, was reinstated for a further term of office; Professor Chris Whatley and Dr Alex Russell were appointed as budget holders for their faculties, following their election and re-election respectively as Dean of Arts & Social Sciences and Dean of Law & Accountancy; and an appointing committee for the post of Vice-Principal (educational development) was established - comprising Larry Rolland, Esther Roberton and Professor Peter Downes representing Court, Professors Ron Elder, Marion McMurdo and Alan Werritty representing Senate, the Principal as Convener and two external assessors.

Also, on the recommendation of the Nominations Committee, one of the Court's hard-working lay members, Bill Sutherland, was co-opted for a further term of four years from 1 August. Nor did the Court forget to record its congratulations to the five members of staff who had received the accolade of election as Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The process of revamping the committee structure, in which 17 committees, sub-committees and advisory groups have been swept away and replaced with five new 'super-committees', was finally brought to a conclusion with the full membership of all Court committees being approved, with effect from April 2002 and throughout 2002/03. Details are available on the web at http://www.dundee.ac.uk/academic/

The report from Senate, whose recommendations are normally confined to degree regulation amendments and honorary appointments, contained on this occasion two very significant proposals for the academic life of the University, both of which the Court approved. One was the split of the existing faculty of science & engineering into two separate faculties, comprising the school of life sciences and the school of engineering, from 1 August 2002. The other was the detailed shape of the academic year to accommodate the introduction of semesters in 2003/04.

A veil was lifted from the hitherto rather secretive proceedings of the remuneration committee, whose remit is to determine the salaries of professorial and equivalent staff and of the Principal. In the interests of transparency, the Court received a document setting out the committee's procedures and guidelines which, it was explained, had been adopted by the Committee on a trial basis in 2001/02 and would be fully implemented in 2002/03 - including communication with all staff involved, both before and after the review.

The Court's approval of the report of the finance committee entailed substantive decisions on: University ownership of the proposed extension to the students' association building, with appropriate safeguarding of DUSA's interests; further investment of £222k in the early retirement scheme in 2001/02; and repayment to the University of its share of the net assets of Dundee Incubator Co Ltd. A pensive note was struck in relation to the scale of the backlog of planned and statutory maintenance, which is unlikely to be eliminated in the foreseeable future even with current investment in infrastructure running at c. £1m per annum. It was emphasised that the funding gap could only be bridged by finding extra revenue and/or increasing reserves through setting surplus targets each year (a policy the Court has been actively pursuing for the last few years). Another approach which would require serious attention was improving intensity of building use, with the aim of reducing the overall size of the estate.

Estate issues were prominent again in discussion of plans for the residences. Faced with escalating costs in the management of residential accommodation, due in large measure to the high cost of compliance with the houses in multiple occupancy regulations, the special committee on residence fees had approved a budget for 2002/03 which, by various measures including a reduction of cleaning services, would limit increases in charges to students to an average of 5%.

The Court also gave specific approval, based on the conclusions of an options appraisal, for expenditure of a further £750k on Belmont Hall - for replacement of the lifts in the Tower and additional refurbishment/upgrading of H block. The proposed work will be carried out over the summer of 2002. The Court was promised further discussion of the overall strategy for residential accommodation at the 'away-day' in May, in the light of an external review funded by a SHEFC grant.

And finally, with a flourish of the banner for academic freedom, in approving a revised code of practice for use of the internet the Court agreed that its provisions on race relations and sexual discrimination, as applied to material published or received via the Internet, should not prejudice the legitimate research interests of academic staff.

Next Page
Return to May 2002 Contact