The Annual Senior Management Retreat September 2018 Vice- - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Welcome to The Annual Senior Management Retreat September 2018

Vice- Chancellor’s Report Professor Alec Cameron

Agenda Context – the UK HE sector 1. 1. How is Aston performing? • Our key metrics • Performance highlights 2. Our strategy • Its implementation • What we need to do to succeed

Higher Education and Political Environment Sector seeing constant change • New regulatory environment – Office for Students • Tuition Fees and research funding – uncertainty • Review into post-18 funding • Brexit • Increased competition for fewer students • Market segmentation and ‘over supply’ – RG, mid tariff, low tariff

How is Aston performing? Our key metrics • We are still ahead of the sector on student satisfaction but we are slipping back (despite the improved performance this year of EAS) • We are still ahead of the sector for graduate level employment but we are being caught up – We are behind our competitors for the percentage of postgraduates/further study • As our input measures such as SSR have been improving slowly, unless we improve outcomes we will fall once more in the UK and global rankings

8 Year NSS Overall Satisfaction Data (Source: National Student Survey) 91 90 90 90 89 89 89 88 88 87 % Agree/Satisfied 86 86 86 86 86 85 85 85 84 84 84 84 83 83 83 82 81 80 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 NSS Year Aston Score Sector Mean

10 Year Graduate Prospects Data and Rank (Source: Complete University Guide) Graduate Prospects % 2010-2019 84 83 82.3 82 81 80 79.4 79 78.8 78.1 78.1 78 77 76.6 Graduate Prospects % 76 75.7 75.2 75 74.8 74 73 73.0 73.0 72 Aston Graduate Prospect Rank 2010-2019 71.4 71 70 69 68.8 68.6 68 Complete University Guide Year 67 66.3 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 66.1 66 65 1 64.6 64.1 64 63.7 63.6 3 63 62 5 61 7 60 9 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 11 Aston Graduate Prospects Rank Complete University Guide Year 13 15 15 Aston Score Sector Mean 16 17 17 17 18 19 21 22 23 25 25 27 28 29 31 31 33 35 37 37 39

10 Year Student/Staff Ratio Data and Rank (Source: Complete University Guide) Student/Staff Ratio 2010-2019 Complete University Guide Year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 10 11 12 13 Student/Staff Ratio 14 15 Aston SSR Rank 2010-2019 15.9 16 16.0 16.0 16.0 16.2 16.2 16.6 16.8 17 17.0 17.1 17.4 17.4 Complete University Guide Year 17.6 17.6 17.7 18 18.1 18.2 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 19 19.0 1 6 20 20.1 11 20.9 21 16 21 22 26 31 34 Aston Score Sector Mean 36 41 Student/Staff Ratio Rank 45 46 47 48 48 50 51 56 61 63 66 71 76 81 86 91 96 101 106 108 111 116 121 124 125 126

Aston’s 10 Year League Table Positions University Guide Years 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 1 4 7 10 13 13 16 17 19 19 22 22 Overall University Rank 25 25 27 27 27 28 29 29 30 30 30 31 32 32 33 33 34 34 34 34 35 36 37 40 41 43 43 45 46 46 49 49 51 52 55 Complete University Guide Guardian Times/Sunday Times

Financial performance • Improving financial resilience: – £10.8M operating surplus in 2017/18 (6.6% of revenue) • Growing income: – £152.3M (up 9.3% in 2 years) • Increased investment in staff: – Pay costs are £85.7M (60.3% of revenue, cf 57.9% in 2015/16) – 94 new academic staff recruited this year. – 32 more in recruitment ‘pipeline’

Our student numbers are stable in a tough market Student Numbers 2017/18 UG 11,979 PG 3,665 15,644 TOTAL • The UK Undergraduate market is shrinking. • Whilst we will be very close to meeting our 2018/19 UG recruitment target (of 2919) and our student number target of 15,723, we need to diversify faster into PG and DA.

Comparators and competitors • We compare ourselves with similar medium tariff institutions – such as Brunel, Keele, Leicester, Bradford. We will be better than them. • We compete directly with these institutions but also with Coventry, BCU and UoB for student recruitment. That is our marketplace. • We do not benchmark or compare ourselves with Russell Group institutions (and neither do our beneficiaries).

10 Year Entry Tariff Data per Selected Competitor Institutions (Source: Complete University Guide) 430 411 410 407 400 399 396 390 390 386 380 379 378 374 374 370 370 368 365 364 360 358 356 353 351 351 350 350 350 Entry Tariff Aston: 136 345 349 342 342 340 Leicester: 136 335 330 329 Bradford: 131 325 321 319 319 Brunel: 131 317 315 312 310 310 Keele: 128 306 302 290 277 275 270 270 268 250 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Complete University Guide Year Aston Bradford Brunel Keele Leicester

Second best total ever for research awards + £22.5m £30m Total research awards 2017/18 Ambition for 2023

Research highlights • An extremely strong year for KTPs – 6 worth £1.3 million since April alone • We are diversifying funding sources from a reliance on the EU – Two large EPSRC grants have been awarded to EAS Photonics worth £1.4 million: led by Professor Edik Rafailov and by Professor Nick Doran. – Dr Alan Goddard of LHS has been awarded £650,000 from BBSRC. – Aston has successfully partnered within Midlands Innovation for funding on the £5 million Connecting Capability fund and the ICURe research commercialisation bid

Aston Medical School now launched • First cohort of 60 students (40 International, 20 Home) starting in a few weeks • For 2019, 40% of the 100 government-funded places will be reserved for students from low-income backgrounds

Our beneficiary led strategy makes us distinctive • Increased focused on employer relationships • A greater focus on region • A refined product offering • A joined-up research offering • Diversification of revenue streams

Our Commitment is to deliver the strategy • We will invest more in people and systems to reach our strategic goals faster • We will prioritise investment in activities aligned to our beneficiaries – our students, business and the professions, our region and society • We will focus to achieve measurable outcomes – graduate employability, business engagement, regional economic growth and social inclusion • This means greater support for Careers + Placements, IT systems, our business offer, and for international recruitment • We will continue to recruit more academic staff • We will develop a staff value proposition that reflects a high-performance, customer-centred culture

The Degree Apprenticeship trajectory • Along with International, the biggest opportunity we have to diversify our product mix speedily and amplify our links to business. • New programmes in development across all Schools: • ABS Executive Apprenticeship MBA already has 70 recruits. • LSS Police Apprenticeship and LHS Nurse Practitioner will be launched shortly • Aiming for 750 students on Degree Apprenticeships in 2018/19 (currently 390 in 2017/18)

International activity Muscat • Academic partnership launched with Oman’s newest higher education institution Aston in China • Establishment of a partnership with NEFU in Harbin • Academic presence in country • Ramped-up marketing and agent activity Recruitment • Partnering QS to improve conversions • Focus on priority markets • New scholarship and articulation strategies • UG international numbers up • PG focus going forwards

New Estates and IT strategies to improve our student experience A new Estates strategy has been developed which will see: • STEM disciplines (EAS, LHS, AMS) centred in the Main Building • ABS/LSS co-located in a new building • Demolition of the North and South Wings • Main Building Ground Floor to be devoted to student facing services including Careers + Placements • Executive move to ABS • N ew Students’ Union building will be ready for spring 2019 • Greater investment in IT infrastructure and the Library • A planned investment of £250 million over ten years

We must recognise and strengthen our market position • We are a mid size, mid tariff (BBB – CCC) civic university with a strong commitment to Birmingham and the West Midlands. • This is a strength and we need to do everything we can to maximise our advantage in this market – Over 50% of our students are now from the West Midlands – Most of our KTPs and industrial partners are based in the region, which is a dynamic economy – Our placement partners are here – Birmingham is a diverse, international city which welcomes students and citizens from around the globe and is a springboard to the world

To be successful we must deliver our strategy • Do more of what we are good at, and stop doing what we are less good at • Diversify revenue faster and be market-led – Demonstrate greater relevance to business and regional partners; succeed with degree apprenticeships – Grow our international enrolments • Develop our culture to be more nimble and operate at greater pace – Work together, across institutional ”silos” – Adhere to our values • Professional and ambitious • Innovative and collaborative • Ethical and inclusive

Any Questions?