Author: Evelyn Welch

As we approach the end of the current academic year, and my first at Bristol, I would like to thank everyone across the University for the work that we’ve all done to make us such a special place.  I have learned so much about the outstanding work colleagues are doing across the board, from devising sustainable catering options to creating successful spin-out companies. The year has not been without its challenge – more below – but I am very proud of everything we’ve been able to do together.

Building our international reputation

This term I’ve focused on international visits; meeting with our Bristol alumni, supporters and partners on both coasts of the United States.

In New York City, I was quizzed by our graduate and BBC reporter, Laura Trevelyan, famous for her determination to redress the legacy of her ancestors who profited from the work of slaves on plantations in Grenada. I was able to talk with her and fellow alumni about how we and our city are responding to the same challenge and how they can help provide redress for long-standing social injustices.

On the West Coast, the conversation turned to our major quantum spin-out success and we were  joined by the UK’s envoy for Science and Industry.

Those that have done well recognise that Bristol helped them with their first steps and we are very grateful for their ongoing support with, for example, our Bristol Black Scholarship Programme.

There is still more to do to ensure that future students, businesses and academic collaborators in the USA hear more about our world-leading work in research and education. We now have a team of three colleagues working in the States, focusing on raising our profile and reputation. If you are planning a trip to the US, let us know and we can connect you.

Bristol participates in a number of international consortia. I joined Agnes Nairn and colleagues at the University of Monterrey for the annual meeting of the World Universities Network. We were one of the founding members of this network, which supports international research links, including themes such as student mental health and climate change. This was an opportunity to link up with our partners to discuss the next steps in launching our charter on equitable partnerships between the Global North and South. Thanks to the work of the Perivoli Africa Research Centre and colleagues at UCT and the University of South Africa (UNISA), we will launch the charter in Namibia next month.

Building networks back home

I’ve been continuing to meet schools, faculties, staff networks and students; most recently Geography, Education, Law, Policy Studies, Physics, Chemistry and Engineering, and our specialist research groups such as the Quantum Engineering Technologies Lab. I spent time with more than 100 members of our different staff groups working on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. I left this conversation proud of our mutual support for each other but also very aware of how much more we need to do to ensure colleagues from minority backgrounds feel their experiences are understood, appreciated and valued; and, even more importantly, that their voices are heard and acted upon.

Industrial action

This year has been one of celebrating success but also a time when we have had to have frank conversations around pay, pensions and the terms and conditions for staff. I hope we can all agree that the clear agreement between our union, UCU and UUK, over next steps on the USS pension, is very positive. Now we need to find a negotiated outcome to the other disputes. I hope UCU members will join me in advocating for the changes that Bristol has already put in place around the issues to do with terms and conditions; this makes us amongst the lowest users of short-term contracts in the Russell Group. We are also working with all our local trade unions on our pay spine.

I explained in the live-stream why things have become so difficult. Despite what you may have heard, UCEA, the employers’ negotiating group, has not left the negotiating table. UCEA remains open to discussing terms of reference for a national conversation about the many things that we care about: pay spines, pay gaps, contract and workloads. But with so many higher education institutions facing severe financial challenges, often necessitating redundancies, we will only be able to discuss further national pay rises next spring when we look at the 24/25 pay settlement. In a special meeting of Senate, called by members on 19 June, to discuss the temporary regulations in place to support student progression and graduation this summer, I am pleased to say that, after robust discussion, 78% of Senators supported and had confidence in the regulations. The marking and assessment boycott is truly regrettable and will do little to change the financial challenges caused by rising inflation, flat tuition fees and research income that doesn’t cover its costs. I remain open to hearing from anyone, whether on an individual basis or as a group, about how we try to move forward in a way that supports both our own University and the wider sector as a whole.

Regional and civic engagement

One of the very special aspects of our University is the difference we can make to the city and region in which we live. I was pleased to share the stage with Mayor Marvin Rees at a conference on ‘Realising Regional Growth’ and to have West of England Mayor, Dan Norris, with us when we signed the contract for our new CM1 Temple Quarter main building. This was followed by a ‘breaking ground’ ceremony on site, where we were joined by Mayor Rees, local councillors and our constituency MP, Thangam Debbonaire.

Professor Steve West and I celebrated 30 years of collaboration in Bristol on UWE’s anniversary of becoming a university, signing the Civic University Agreement which provides the framework for future partnership working across the city. And in probably the most impressive news of all, our wonderful University Challenge Team became the first Bristol showing in a series final. Given it was Jeremy Paxman’s last episode, it was particularly nail-biting. While the team eventually lost out to Durham, they really did us proud!

University Structures 2030

Finally, our work is progressing on our strategic business change programme University Structures 2030. Our ambition is to create a clearer framework for decision-making, build a smaller, more agile leadership team, and enable decision-making at the lowest appropriate level. This programme will bring together three strands of change to ensure integration and alignment – Academic Structures, the Professional Services Operating Model, and the Structure of the Academic Year. We intend to establish three new faculties, and are implementing some academic leadership changes from 1 August 2023, as part of a two-year transition period during which structures will evolve to ensure we are fully integrated by 2025.

In support of these changes, I am delighted to welcome our new Pro-Vice Chancellors and Executive Deans: Jeremy Tavare (Health and Life Sciences), Ian Bond (Engineering and Science) and Esther Dermott (Arts, Law and Social Sciences), as well as our new Director of Faculty Operations, Mary Millard, who will lead this change through our transition period. Please also welcome our two new Associate Pro-Vice Chancellors, Liang Fong Wang (Global Engagement) and Palie Smart (Civic Engagement). We also have a suite of new Heads of School including Chrissie Thirlwell as Head of Bristol Medical School, joining us from Exeter University; Jennifer McManus as Head of the School of Physics; and John Wylie, as Head of Geographical Sciences, the latter two both internal appointments.

We have a lot going on across our University and it’s important that we all take time to rest and recharge. I hope that you have holiday booked to enjoy the rest of this glorious British summer weather. We are blessed on campus with the many green spaces to enjoy – thank you to our campus team who do a fantastic job of keeping us close to nature. Remember to make use of these spaces to relax and unwind. Our world-class Botanic Garden offers free entry to staff and students, and is well worth a visit for some peace and tranquility (and, as I can testify, a fabulous place to have coffee and cake).

I hope you have a wonderful summer.

Endnotes

• Temple Quarter breaking ground ceremony image:
  Professor Welch, Mayor Marvin Rees, Hector McAlpine of Sir Robert McAlpine, Chair of Trustees, Jack Boyer, and Thangam Debbonaire MP
• Civic University Agreement image:
  From left to right: Julia Gray, Principal and Chief Executive Officer – City of Bristol College; Professor Evelyn Welch, Vice-Chancellor and President – University of Bristol; Professor Steve West, Vice-Chancellor, President, and Chief Executive Officer – UWE Bristol; Andrea Dell, Head of City Office; and Stephen Peacock, Chief Executive – Bristol City Council. Photo credit – UWE Bristol

It is six months since I became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol.  My thanks to everyone who has helped me get to know the University and the City in all their brilliance and boldness. I have seen such great things happening but have also had numerous conversations about individual and collective challenges. I appreciate the open way in which colleagues, students and other members of our broader Bristol community have shared their insights, ideas and opinions.

I wanted to take time to write down my reflections and share some of what I see as the future for our University in light of those discussions. I do so in the knowledge that not all is well in Higher Education across the UK, or indeed globally, as I write this in South Africa during my first trip abroad on behalf of Bristol. However, while some of what I say below is quite sobering, I am optimistic about the future. Everywhere I’ve been (whether it has been a Bristol, Pretoria or Cape Town classroom), I have met such extraordinary people who are determined to do, and be, their very best.

As part of my trip, I have been visiting our strategic partner, the University of Cape Town, who, like us, have ambitious plans that take them to 2030. Like us, they also have concerns about student fees, accommodation costs and the need for greater inclusion, social and racial justice, and access to the benefits of Higher Education.

While we also have considerable differences, there are some fundamental shared issues. Declining home fees no longer cover the actual costs of tuition; we are increasingly dependent on international fees or philanthropy to cover gaps in research funding and education. For public institutions that don’t have large endowments, there are few easy answers.

I don’t need to remind you that, at Bristol, while our income is constrained by caps on home tuition fees, our costs are not. Inflation has hit everybody personally. Our students are worried about how far their maintenance grant will stretch. Colleagues are understandably concerned about rising costs, pay and pensions. It has hit the University as an institution as well. Some of this isn’t new, and these growing financial pressures have led to staff strikes and student protests in Higher Education for almost five consecutive years. But post-COVID, things really do need to change. The goodwill that has kept our system working is fraying at every level.

But if this is the challenge,  there is some hope on the horizon in the United Kingdom. Our unions and Universities UK have agreed a joint statement on pensions which we endorse, and while negotiations on pay may have concluded, we support ongoing talks on broader working conditions.

I have been out listening to colleagues in numerous venues, from individual meetings at my monthly VC surgeries to picket line conversations. I have heard sensible suggestions about practical steps that we can take to be more effective and efficient, as well as exciting ideas for new opportunities. In turn, I have done my best to explain why we need to change our approach to University finances and decision-making, ensuring we simplify processes, reduce bureaucracy and build more trust into our systems. I know there is more to do to explain how we make investment decisions, particularly in terms of capital expenditure.

This does mean change, something that I know can elicit groans of “not again!”

Let me explain what is being proposed and why. Our current University Executive Board is very large, with more than 25 members. We also have a Strategic Implementation Board, featuring essentially the same people, monitoring our progress against our strategy and agreeing investments that will help deliver our aims. A host of committees feed into these two groups, including the Academic Leadership Group, Operations Board, Portfolio Boards and other groups which oversee implementation of the various themes of our strategy. Faculties and Directorates have their own layers of meetings, which should join up with these senior-level university groups but often don’t. Then there is Senate, a key academic body, which has its own essential groups that meet and report regularly.

Universities are complex places, but as the description above suggests, we can build in more  complexity than is really needed. These committees and meetings consume people’s attention, focus and time.

My ambition is for Bristol to be more open, trustworthy and trusting, restoring energy by placing authority where it is needed most. With greater autonomy comes greater local accountability. Within agreed guidelines, and referring to specific expertise when needed, we should trust one another to do our very best.

To make this possible, Judith Squires has been leading a review of our academic leadership structures, drawing upon ideas from a working group drawn from Senate members. I’ve been clear with that group from the beginning that I do need a smaller number of Deans on our University Executive and that, above all,  Schools need greater visibility and autonomy. The working group, in turn, has come up with a range of ways in which this could be made possible, while retaining elements of the current structures they believe are valuable.

In the Spring, therefore, we will be appointing three Executive Deans for Health & Life Sciences, Arts, Social Sciences & Law and Science & Engineering, initially for a period of up to two years. Executive Deans will work with colleagues to define, within agreed overarching university guidelines, local frameworks that work for their Schools, staff and students. These appointments will be made from the current cohort of Deans or equivalents to ensure some continuity as we work through the detail of the changes over the next eighteen to twenty-four months.

What does this mean for Professional Services (PS) colleagues?  Simplified Faculties, and Schools with more responsibility and accountability will need appropriate levels of PS support (balanced across local and central teams) with appropriately streamlined processes and systems. Work to create efficient and effective PS teams is now underway at Bristol and engagement on this will continue. Lucinda Parr is leading this work. Over the next six months she will be leading a process to define the structures required to give Executive Deans and Heads of School the help they need. Lucinda will be supported in this by a new Executive Director of Faculty Operations, who will be appointed over the summer to help us evolve the Faculty PS model in support of our strategy. More information about the changes can be found here and here.

I realise there will be some anxiety around implementing changes. This is why we are moving swiftly to make the direction of travel clear while also taking time to implement the detail, which will include confirming how students are represented in our decision-making.

While University structures matter, they are the mechanism for delivering our ambitions, not an ambition in their own right. We have a lot to do and a lot to deliver by 2030. We have a bold strategy and a new campus to open in 2026. We face serious issues around climate change and meeting our Net Zero commitments, with or without offsetting. We are part of a city that is changing all around us. We need to contribute to its overall prosperity, not just our own.  As just one of many examples of how we make this work, our city is home to the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, where last month I signed an agreement with UWE Vice-Chancellor Steve West, formalizing our ten-year partnership commitment in what is the largest academic centre for robotics research in the UK.

On practical matters, let me finish by outlining some major financial decisions that we have recently made or are in the process of deciding. There are often concerns that we invest more in buildings than in people, but that isn’t the case: at Bristol more than 50% of our income goes on salaries. Nonetheless, our people need the right infrastructure within which to work. The Board of Trustees has approved recommendations to modernize our computing network. They have also approved a major upgrade to our teaching and learning facilities in the Veterinary School, as well as the extension on our lease of Maggs House, enabling more innovative student-focused space to be developed on the Clifton Campus. At the end of March, the Board will also make the final decision on the construction of the main CM1 building at Temple Quarter, a key moment in planning that has been ongoing since the idea of a new campus was first discussed almost a decade ago.

This is exciting. This is ambitious. This is bold. This is why I came to Bristol.

I realise that some of what I have written may raise more questions for you. We can pick these up either in our next town-hall live-stream meeting or you can always email me at vice-chancellor@bristol.ac.uk.

Thank you again for the welcome shown to me over these first six months and the work that each and every one of you does to make us such a special place. I look forward to meeting with many more of you in the weeks and months ahead.

The past four months have flown by so quickly and it is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of term.

It has been a real pleasure to get to know the University of Bristol community, our city and our many friends and partners. I have been so impressed by the high calibre of our academic and professional services work. I have seen the depth of the shared commitment of staff, students and our city to solving long-term issues such as public health, environmental sustainability and social justice. I have participated in open conversations on difficult and complex issues ranging from contemporary racial inequalities to cost-of-living pressures.

I am committed to building on these foundations and it was great to launch the University’s new strategy, one that will take us to 2030.  I was not here when the strategy was developed but it is a privilege to lead the delivery of its purpose-led, bold and uniquely Bristolian drive for excellence and inclusion over the next seven years.

The next phase is to move forward to meet our promises and put our strategy into practice. I have every confidence that we can do this, and more. Over the past months, I have visited schools, faculties and directorates and held two live-streamed conversations with staff. I have worked closely with our University of Bristol Students’ Union to hear their views on what we do well, and where we need to improve. I have met regularly with the Mayor of Bristol and the Metro Mayor of the West of England Combined Authority and caught up with what we do collaboratively through our SetSquared, GW4 and the Western Gateway Initiatives. Our University senior team have met with UWE and the University of Bath’s executives to explore areas where we can deepen our local partnerships. I have been out to see the National Composites Centre and Science Create where some of our most entrepreneurial work takes place and taken Research council, Research England and parliamentary visitors around the new Bristol Digital Futures Institute and our exciting emerging Temple Quarter site.

I have also been struck by the special place that the University of Bristol has in the life of the nation as well as globally. It was a privilege to represent the University at Her Royal Highness, the late Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and to host the Mayor’s Annual State of the City Address and the High Sheriff’s conference on how to make the legal system more diverse. I have met numerous alumni in the UK and from across the world who want to help make the University as effective as possible. If we can deliver on our 2030 ambitions, we will be an exemplar of what it truly means to be a global-civic university.

Throughout these conversations, I have also been aware of the challenges that we face, both in dealing with our past and in formulating our future. We have an increasingly diverse student body but this isn’t reflected in our the make-up of our staff. We are seeing much higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression in both our student and staff bodies than ever before. Expectations about what we should provide are rising at the same time as our financial resources are being stretched to their limits. But I believe that Bristol will rise to these challenges today just as we have done in the past. I am very excited about what 2023 will bring and look forward to seeing you all again in the New Year.

I’ve recorded a short film for my University colleagues reflecting on my experiences this term and looking ahead to 2023 which you may like to watch.

Have a wonderful, restful break and a Happy New Year.

I have now been at Bristol for just over two months. I remain constantly impressed with what I see every day but also very aware of many of the challenges we face collectively and individually going into the winter.

I’ve really enjoyed meeting so many of you, including hearing about our University Research Institutes and research groups, attending Faculty Assemblies, speaking to students, and attending a Global Lounge Diwali celebration hosted by the India Society (below). The staff long-service event was another real highlight, celebrating the contributions and service of over 25 and 40 years of more than 50 colleagues.

I know how committed Bristol staff are to our students and our community, and that the decision to take strike action is always a difficult one. UCU has announced three days of strike at the end of November. This is a national pay dispute and we will do our part to try to achieve an affordable outcome that works for our future and that of our sector.

Universities need friends more than ever, and I’ve also spent some of this time telling our Bristol story to partners and supporters. These include politicians such as Thangam Debbonnaire MP, in whose constituency we sit, and the Shadow Universities Minister, Matt Western MP. Matt is a Bristol graduate and enjoyed seeing our Temple Quarter site, visiting the Bristol Digital Futures Institute, and meeting our student officers. I introduced the Mayor’s Annual State of the City Address in Wills Hall, and I or one of our senior team now join his fortnightly City Partners call to co-ordinate our approach to Bristol’s urban challenges. One of the results has been our contribution to the city’s ‘welcoming spaces’ initiative where we are supporting young people in the Barton Hill area through after-school clubs on our micro-campus at the Wellspring Settlement led by IntoUniversity.

Partnership is key to our 2030 vision. I very much enjoyed meeting with the CEO of the SS Great Britain to look at how we can build on our long-standing collaboration and was very excited to meet ‘Brunel’ (right) when I spent an evening on the ship as part of our public engagement event, FUTURES 2022 – the largest showcase of research and innovation in the region. I sat down with the CEOs of the Bristol and Weston NHS Trust and the North Bristol Trust to discuss how much more we could do together to tackle health inequalities in the city. I’ve been out to the National Composites Centre and spoken about the entrepreneurship we see at Bristol and the contributions we make to our broader area at the Western Gateway Development Conference.

We will shortly be publicly launching our Strategy – your Strategy – to 2030. I’ll be back next month to ask for your views on how you want to contribute to achieving our ambitions. Meanwhile, I’ve done a short video from the robing room in the Wills Memorial Building as I get ready for my first week of graduations.

I have been in post now for four weeks. While short, it has been a memorable period with events ranging from attending the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on your behalf or watching carefully as the new government has put its priorities in place to see what this means for Higher Education.

Alongside these national events, we’ve welcomed our students back to campus and enjoyed the Welcome Fair and all the amazing activities that the Students’ Union have put in place. I finished my first round of local and student media interviews, including with BBC Points West, Radio Bristol, Heart FM, Bristol 24/7, Epigram, UBTV and the Tab; and for colleagues who missed it, you can view my Town Hall introduction and Q&A session on the staff intranet.

Elsewhere, we’ve also had good news from Research England’s Knowledge Exchange Framework exercise which shows that Bristol is second only to Oxford in the amount of investment that our spin-out companies attract, testimony to the brilliance and impact that our research is achieving.

On a more sobering note, I’ve been speaking to UNISON colleagues on their picket lines last week. I’ve heard understandable worries about pay, cost-of-living concerns and workload pressures. While the issues around pay can only be negotiated at a national level, my colleagues will be working with all our trade unions to see what local measures we can take to help staff get through the winter and beyond.

Finally, I’ve had just over 170 messages to the VC-Feedback inbox and I’ve done my best to reply to each of you individually. I remain so impressed with the deep affection that you all have for the University of Bristol, one that I now understand and share myself. That gives me great confidence that we will be able to navigate any shifting funding or political challenges together. The dedicated mailbox is now closed but you can always contact me on vice-chancellor@bristol.ac.uk

In this short video, filmed in the study spaces of Senate House, I’ve tried to capture what this month has felt like.