Minute Precision

The latest minutes of University Council never fail to make for interesting reading.

It would appear Eric Healey - 'Daffyd' Austin's replacement as the Chair of the Audit Committee - was parachuted in in something of a rush. The 30th June 2011 meeting was Mr Healey's first appearance at Council and he was immediately appointed Chair of Audit. Perhaps they were in a rush to dispense with the services of our old friend Ian?

Vice-Chancellor 'Marty' Hall postulates that the HE White Paper looks gloomy for Salford. He calls the University part of the "squeezed middle" (trampled bottom, surely?) that is likely to lose substantial funding under the arrangements.

Finances don't seem to be looking too healthy either and the University have introduced means of mitigating the possibility of the end of year accounts showing a budget deficit (including a freeze on discretionary expenditure - more on this another day).

In what it calls a "cautious approach", Council has anticipated a drop in Home/EU student recruitment, as a result of the HE White Paper/Fee Change, of 21%, as well as declining retention rates thereafter. This itself will put further pressures on operating income. "Asset disposal" was described as a future possibility in order to help try and alleviate the anticipated financial pressures, although the budget agreed to includes no assumptions that this will be necessary.

Yet another fall in the league table positions was finally discussed - Professor Hall yet again claiming that it's a numbers game as well as a quality game (now when did we last hear him say that?). Naturally the method of calculation was blamed rather than the University's performance - a Marxist explanation if ever we heard one.

Of interest is that the University has taken a position of outright opposition to plans for a private Student Accommodation complex (non-affiliated with the University we presume) to be build on Adelphi Street.

Perhaps the most interesting detail in the minutes is that the University's statutes are set to be amended to prevent staff members from being able to elect candidates for membership of University Council. The official explanation given for this was to ensure members were competent rather than popular. So much for transparency!

There is some discussion of the new - much despised - logo, which the Salford Star are claiming cost a whopping £170,000.00. Much attempt is made to intellectualise what is largely seen as a pretty shoddy finished product. To her credit, current Students' Union President Caroline Dangerfield asked for it to be noted in the minutes her opposition to the rebrand.