We will use the opportunities afforded by CAS to create more frequent formative feedback across the Frameworks to students – spreading the good practice established in the Design Framework – to raise students’ awareness of their own progress. Over the last few years we developed new forms of assessment and feedback that better incorporate the use of our virtual learning environment. We also encouraged the academic teams to blend the use of physical and virtual learning and social
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spaces in their educational activities. These initiatives increased student satisfaction and we will further develop our activities in this area. Staff will undertake development in e-learning in order to embrace the shift towards blended learning.
4.3.5 Employability (C1B, C4A, S1B, S3A, I2A)
During the School’s curriculum reviews we ensured that employability enhancement activities were embedded in the frameworks. There are now wider opportunities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels for students to engage with industrial placements. We will seek to expand the diversity and flexibility of industrial placements, both at home and overseas. We will also widen the
‘employer engagement’ agenda by facilitating guest lectures, company visits, skills development, networking activities and alumni interaction.
4.4 Staffing Strategy (I1B, I4A)
Staff Satisfaction (S3C,P2A,P3B)
The School will use the results of the recent staff survey to identify any areas for improvement and engage with staff to develop an action plan to address these. Some current and new initiatives are:
• Working to improve the standard of office accommodation.
• Social space for informal interaction for staff.
• Ensure excellent IT and technology support for changing working methods. E.g. dual screens, mobile tablets.
• Good communications flows – e.g. synopsis of Exec and SMT meetings to all staff.
• Continue the well attended informal coffee mornings.
• Try to ensure, where possible, staff have at least one clear day to engage in Professional Practice and Research activities
• Ensure time for staff development opportunities; align the personal development fund to benefit all staff, increase funds from released QR income.
• Encourage sabbatical application using BU initiatives such as the Fusion Funds.
• Encourage and support industry secondment e.g. RAE Industrial Secondment.
• Introduce a monthly “achievers lunch” for those who exceed expectations in Education, Research of Professional Practice.
• Facilitate an upward flow of ideas from staff within DEC.
SSR (P1A)
SSR has been affected by the increase in student numbers this year. The School is keen to work to maintaining UG numbers to allow new staff to embed into the frameworks. The SSR calculations include vacant posts as below:
11/12 Vacant Posts 11/12
12/13 Vacant Posts 12/13
Design 20 0 21.2 0
Creative 14.9 0 17.7 0
Computing 22.8 2 20.6 3
Psychology 24.7 4 19.7 2
Looking to the future, in order to meet the 19:1 SSR (3 year plan) and 18:1 (6 year plan) across the frameworks against our predicted student target numbers, significant investment is required as the graph below indicates:
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In total, the School requires an estimated 17 FTE to meet the 18:1 target. Although staff recruitment in DEC is generally strong, with good calibre applicants, the issue of suitable office space is a serious problem in Poole House. A strategy will need to be implemented with EIS in order to meet this KPI (KPI 7).
Design
After some re-alignment of staff and an increase in student numbers in 11/12, the SSR looks set to increase in 12/13 to 21.2. The strategy within the Design framework is one of consolidation in 12/13.
There are a number of initiatives within the framework such as the development of the MEng BEng courses and the STEM agenda. The framework is intending to retain an RA/AL on a 1 year fixed term contract to devote time to REF Impact work and developing masters units. This will allow the framework to assess future student admission trends and ensure staff recruitment is aligned to the correct subject area.
Creative
Staff have been re-aligned in respect of the management of the CT framework and the delivery of the units to fit better with their research activities and expertise. The SSR in this framework delivers to the KPI 7. However, it is clear that the average RKE income is lower in this area per FTE, possibly due to staff having been retrained in new subject areas, and it is a School priority to improve this.
The Creative framework is setting up a detailed training schedule for staff to engage in sessions on bid writing, networking, and industrial collaboration.
Computing
The Computing framework has recruited 2 additional posts in 11/12 and has been able to increase knowledge in the expanding securities area. Computing staff have been able to engage in
secondments to European industries through an EU grant, which has boosted knowledge exchange in this area significantly. The School must harness these benefits and ensure that staff are able to
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share this across other frameworks. Two new Professors are planned for 12/13, which will support the Information Assurance / System developing areas along with an additional lecturer post which will be aligned to Ethical Hacking and Counter Measures. A further demonstrator is required to support the large cohorts and directly aligns to maintaining student experience.
Psychology
With the recruitment of the new cluster of staff, the Psychology team are hoping to bring a fresh approach and new initiatives to both educational activities and research. RKE income remains a challenge, but the expectation is that the new posts in the Professoriate will bring a boost in this area, as well as mentoring the newer, less experienced staff in bid submissions. Capital investment in Psychology (Eye Tracker & developing the fMRI Hub) will enable the team to focus on clear subject areas and forge ahead with research activities.
General
In general, all advertised posts have had a good response with high calibre people, bringing RKE opportunities to the School, and International links with Universities and Industry. The School plan to capitalise on these links to help improve both research collaborations and postgraduate taught student numbers. (KPI 2, P1A)
New staff are mentored by existing staff to encourage effective team integration, understanding of the Vision & Values and their part to play, and allows us to recognise areas of support that are needed to meet the strategic aims of the framework, and BU overall. Building on the Schools vision to be a ‘Beacon of Success’, it is anticipated that staff recruitment of good quality and internationally recognised staff will continue and enable these staff to bring innovation and links into our existing staff base. (P1B, P1C, P2A)
The School will work with our HR team to use the workforce planning information for succession planning and ensure that in areas where there is an ageing workforce there are plans in place to ensure continuity and knowledge transfer (P3A). We will continue to promote staff engagement in events and programmes related to their health and well-being. Line managers will continue to actively support any individuals who are experiencing long term health issues (P3C).
Staff Development funds and QR funding have been released in 2012/13 to directly support the Grants Academy for Psychology & Creative staff and other central initiatives. Small School funds are devolved to Research Centres which enables funds to be closely aligned with the development of REF staff and activities. Investment in staff is seen as critical to achieving our strategic plan, and staff will be encouraged to apply for Fusion Funds and other central BU initiatives to attend workshops, networking events, visits to other Universities will continue to be actively encouraged. We currently have 12 staff actively engaged in PhD, DEd and Masters Courses across the frameworks. (Design = 7, Psychology = 1, Computing = 2, Creative = 2)
In terms of administrative staff numbers the School is already lean and working with a significant increase in undergraduate students since the 2011 clearing. We anticipate further growth in student numbers for 2012/13, however we are planning to maintain the current administrative team. This will translate as a relative reduction of staff numbers and we will compensate the deficit through efficiency improvements, some of which will come through BU projects such as the Student Journey.
The School is continuing to work towards an increased flexible technical workforce and one aspect of this could result in technicians moving towards involvement in academic delivery. This is an area which could also help the SSR in some frameworks.
25 4.5 Widening Participation
(C3A, C5A, C5B)
We will seek to raise the aspirations and educational attainment of those from under-represented communities. We will prepare them for higher education, ensure success on their programme of study and improve their employment prospects. We will also improve the accessibility for
postgraduate study and increase opportunities to return to learning. This agenda will be supported by the following activities:
• Look for alternative sources of funding to support lower income full-time students;
• Build our capacity for adult learners;
• Fund outreach activities, specifically in the Security area, to raise aspirations and attainment;
• Improve retention and student success;
• Provide a clear avenue to higher education for adults returning to education;
• Attract non-traditional students from a variety of backgrounds;
• Make access to HE provision cost-effective;
• Enhance the partnership with our FE colleges;
• Provide access to a broad range of higher education courses;
• Foster access through e-learning and new technologies;
• Provide a fully flexible, high quality education that fits around other work and life commitments of students;
• Work in partnership with the private sector to deliver e-learning and adult learning pathways;
• Involvement in the Set Point Scheme – 6th form students work alongside researchers.
4.6 Internationalisation (S3C, I1B, I5A, F1B)
The School will develop an exciting academically led international environment and continue to develop international partnerships based on research and education led collaboration. We will add value to our established international research collaborations by supporting academics to visit and develop secondment opportunities. Our activities will proactively assist and support incoming international academic visits, secondments and sabbaticals. At present we have a UK based community of visiting professors and fellows. We will engage a proactive strategy to increase our international academic community through a targeted approach to Visiting Professors and Fellows (see figure of existing VPs/RFs).
The basis of our targeted approach will utilise intelligent information such as SciVal Spotlight and Scopus to identify our global performers in terms of staff and academic areas (e.g. EC13: Time Series/Forecast Model and EC24: Image Processing). We will support staff to develop academic links with international academics with similar global competencies and also look at cross-school
collaboration in developing international collaboration where clusters of strength are identified. A recent example is of external collaboration Professor Noroozi’s extended visit to a university in Malaysia to conduct experiments and enhance academic links. We will continue investment in this type of collaboration and build strong relationships through our leading academics.
The School has developed successful EU bids particularly in the area of software systems and informatics. We will continue to financially support these successful grants and future EU bidding to develop a strong European network and academic collaboration of external and incoming
secondments. We will add value to our taught programmes from this investment by encouraging guest lectures and exchange opportunities for students such as the ERASMUS scheme. We will
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develop a mentoring scheme for international/EU students based on our PGR and RA international population.
We need to develop our accommodation envelope to facilitate and sustain our internationalisation ambition. This is particularly important for incoming international visiting academics that will need office space based within the School to develop strong academic relationships with our staff and interact with students on taught programmes within the School.
Our ethos includes assistance to our academic staff to become our international ambassadors during international activities with external HEI’s industry and conferences. We will provide staff
development opportunities to help add value to our taught programme recruitment and partnership activities. We will continue to use market trends and strengths within our existing PGT and UG recruitment and look at synergy with our research activities to target academic partnership opportunities (see Appendix 8 for the figures of trends). We are and will continue to explore innovative opportunities to increase our market share of PGT’s to help meet the BU
internationalisation ambition. A recent example is on-line learning collaborative model in the areas of computing and IT. In addition we have recently developed new ideas for a range of MSc courses with focussed marketing to target international PGT students.
We have recently focussed on a small number of exiting partnership opportunities (see table) and assigned an academic champion to drive these forward within targeted academic areas. A financial incentive in terms of fees has been agreed with a number of these institutions. An example of recent developments is with Beijing Jiaotong University that shows promise for taught programme top-up in the area of computing. We will continue to engage with University wide initiatives and target countries such as the China BU community.
These activities lead to a robust foundation of international interaction across all academics within the School. We have recently developed internationalisation measurements of success which are quantifiable and are basis of our strategy. These measurements of success include quantifying our UG, PGT and PGR international community, international conference attendance, visiting
international professors/fellows and joint publications with international institutions and industry.
We will use these measures of success to monitor our progress and agility to gain education benefits from our research. This leads to meeting strategic themes across Creating, Sharing and Inspiring.
Mechanisms and initiatives to deliver and build upon our measurements of success include:-
• Encourage and support academics to initiate visiting professor/fellow applications based on high value academic interaction. Support in-kind and co- travelling expenses to enable visiting academics to participate at BU and encourage research seminars and special lectures to students on taught programmes.
• Encourage international academics use sabbatical periods and secondments at BU within DEC.
• Encourage academic international conference attendance. Development of staff to add value when attending international conferences in terms of promoting our taught programmes.
• We will invest in DEC staff sabbatical policy geared to international overseas institutions of strategic importance to our research income and PGT recruitment.
• Help and encourage DEC staff to attend international conferences. We have staff incentives schemes based on journal outputs and bids to encourage this activity.
• A PGR mentoring scheme for PGT international students
• One fully funded PhD international Scholarship competition open to students registered on our PGT framework. This will highlight the linkages with the PGR activities and add an incentive to international students applying for PGT programmes.
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• DEC will add international scholarships based on the BS model of a fee reduction by
£2000. Fees Board to agree School proposal currently being prepared by the School and M&C.
• Actively engage in KAPLAN International Pathway Project.
• Allocate a member of staff to champion developing partnerships, with a fractional FTE RA/AL to support the partnerships application process. Actively seek funds from BU Central initiatives to provide additional AL support for Internationalisation and Partnerships. The School would look to recruit a more permanent AL if activity grows.
In addition to new PGT programs planned we will boost international PGT recruitment through improvement to our website in terms of international recruitment. A recent survey of our current PGT students identified the website as the main mechanism of recruitment. We will also focus on five international partnerships only where we have existing agreements to develop PGT recruitment (see table). In addition we will work with central internationalisation support to identify growing areas of PGT recruitment such as clinical psychology potential within Psychology.
In order to improve our international recruitment, partnerships and experience for our international students at BU, it is recognised that a central initiative is required at BU which would enable the Schools to fulfil the targets in this area. Currently the system is not flexible enough to respond to the market. DEC would be fully supportive of a central plan with key academic input from Schools to move this agenda forward.
4.7 Marketing Activity (S3A, I5C)
This is a key area for the school to develop both internal and external enhancements which underpins all our academic activities. Internally we will improve our School identity in terms of the visible demonstration of our academic values. In terms of PR the school have actively worked with central services to improve our good news stories to national and international media vehicles.
Examples include television coverage within Psychology and national newspaper stories within the Design and Engineering area. We also work with local news media to facilitate coverage. In terms of marketing we have recently reviewed our PGT website for improve our international student applications and we are reviewing our services to business website. In future we will continue to progress our PR and marketing strengthening and work concurrently with the BU research theme website areas. In particular we will and continue the following initiatives:
• Review of all DEC web pages is underway
• Enhance open/interview day experience to maximise conversion numbers
• Review PGT provision: ensure course names and units are appealing to international and home students
• Rewrite relevant internal and external web pages/course information for international students to ensure DEC strategic themes etc are adequately represented
o Review communication with international agents/partners
• Improve use of social media – academic blogs, twitter and Linked-in to share research outputs and knowledge exchange with commercial partners
• Broadcast more news stories through web, social media etc
• Consider our internal academic group branding in terms of the building space e within Poole House to communicate our academic values visually.
• Implement a robust strategy for building business relationships to promote CPD, KTPs, research projects and consultancy income
o Knowledge Exchange events for regional businesses (guest lectures, business breakfasts etc)
o Focussed targeting for FoDI attendance (national organisations, alumni) o Strengthen existing international research links with regular communication
28 4.8 Space Developments
(P3B,P4A, E1A, S4A,S4B)
Long term plans include an exciting vision for a Science & Technology Building at Talbot Campus. The building will stimulate fusion by incorporating specialist laboratories, staff and PhD offices, social learning space and improved masters facilities. Co-location of staff, PhD researchers and students is a key aim. This facility is a key enabler for School strategic aims to develop our Hubs of Excellence and taking this forward would give BU an exciting, tangible plan to approach industrial partners for investment and sponsorship.
Short Term:
Due to recent expansion in both UG student numbers, and staffing to improve SSR significantly in our Psychology and Computing frameworks, it is now very apparent that the School has reached its capacity in terms of laboratory space, suitable office space and general larger office areas for part time staff and PGRs. Whilst the School recognises other Schools are in similar situations, we have highlighted space that would work in the short term for us, and would alleviate our critical space shortage in the coming year:
PG04 – This area would give the School some immediate big wins in terms of space and identity. The
PG04 – This area would give the School some immediate big wins in terms of space and identity. The