In November 2017, Professor Sir Christopher Snowden outlined plans to re-shape the University and move to a five-faculty structure as part of our 10-Year Plan. A number of activities are now underway to ensure that the new Faculty structure is in place by 1 August 2018. Work to align our Professional Services to the new Faculty structure will continue through 2018 and 2019.
We will be posting regular updates on SUSSED, and a copy of this information will also be sent to senior managers, our Unions, and our colleagues at SUSU so that they can facilitate sharing within their own departments and networks.
Council approval
An important benefit of these changes will be consistency of structure, accountability and responsibility in our faculty leadership teams. On Wednesday 14 March, University Council approved the proposed Faculty and School structures. Faculty leadership teams will be known as Faculty Boards.
You can access a diagram of our new Faculty structure here.
Following Council approval, the first of a number of new roles are now being appointed to.
Associate Dean recruitment
The new Faculty structure provides an opportunity to examine the current responsibilities, and ensure future consistency, of our Faculty Boards and the key roles within the senior academic community.
The Vice-Chancellor has written to all existing Associate Deans, letting them know that due to the restructure their current terms of appointment will come to an end on 31 July 2018.
Following this, the Vice-Chancellor wrote to all Level 6 and 7 academics inviting them to submit expressions of interest in the new Associate Dean roles in the new Faculties.
The academic structure in Medicine will remain unchanged pending arrival of the new Dean.
Academic Student Journey work stream
The Educational Governance and Responsibilities Working Group has continued looking at key activities that ensure we deliver a quality education for our students. The Group is also identifying where accountabilities lie in the new structure. Initial outputs will be shared with the Academic Student Journey Board at its inaugural meeting.
The Student Contact Group has held an initial workshop to develop the scope of the work required. The Group considered the impact of the faculty restructure on student-facing processes and services and began to identify the work required to enable a smooth move to the five Faculties from 1 August 2018.
Other updates
- The new Head of Faculty Finance job description has been agreed. More information about these roles will be shared after Easter.
- On Tuesday 20 March, the University Executive Board committed resources to update the current university website to ensure that it accurately reflects the new shape of the University.
Recap: why are we doing this?
The most important benefit of this restructure will be a combination of a forward looking academic structure with improved institutional effectiveness. Having fewer faculties will lead to greater consistency and having larger faculties will lead to greater collaboration, both within and between them. In simple terms, we’ll be better at tackling the great research and teaching challenges ahead, and at getting things done. The reduction of unnecessary complexity will enable us to focus on being the world-leading teaching and research institution that we aspire to be – quality driven, relevant to today’s global challenges, financially sustainable and agile – truly changing the world for the better.
For more information
You can find our previous restructure SUSSED updates here.
During this change programme, some information that is sensitive for external audiences or considered commercial in confidence will be posted on SharePoint and require a staff log-in. To meet our commitment to transparency with our student community, wherever possible this information will be shared with the Students’ Union President and sabbatical officers.
If you have questions about the Faculty restructure, please email: [email protected]. Colleagues in the Strategy Implementation Team manage this mailbox.
If you would like to contact a member of the executive team about the restructure, academic staff can email Professor Mandy Fader ([email protected]) and professional services staff can email Ian Dunn ([email protected]).
