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Senate minutes 11 April 2025

Last updated: 18/12/2025
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Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Cardiff University Senate held on Friday 11 April 2025 at 9:30, in the Hadyn Ellis Lecture Theatre

Attendance

Professor Wendy Larner	P	Dr Tahl Kaminer	P
Professor Rudolf Allemann	P	Professor Deborah Kays	P
Professor Stuart Allan	A	Professor Andrew Kerr
Professor Anthony Bennett	P	Professor Urfan Khaliq	P
Dr Emma Blain	P	Professor Mark Llewellyn	A
Shola Bold	A	Professor Eshwar Mahenthiralingam	P
Professor Kate Brain	P	Dr Olaya Moldes Andres	A
Professor Gill Bristow	A	Claire Morgan	A
Dr Andreas Buerki	P	Greg Mothersdale	A
Professor Christine Bundy	A	Professor Joy Myint	P
Professor Kate Button	P	Ana Nagiel Escobar	P
Eve Chamberlain	P	Rebecca Newsome
Professor David Clarke	P	Professor Gerard O’Grady	P
Lauren Cockayne	A	Joanne Pagett	P
Professor Vicki Cummings	P	Micaela Panes	P
Professor Juliet Davis	P	Dr Vassiliki Papatsiba	A
Michelle Deininger	P	Catrin Edith Parry	A
Dr David Doddington	P	Dr Juan Pereiro Viterbo	A
Dr Derek Dunne	A	Dr Oliver Pierce
Professor Dominic Dwyer	P	Professor Jenny Pike	P
Professor Tim Edwards		Professor Simon Pope	A
Professor Edwin Egede	P	Michael Reade	P
Professor Rachel Errington	P	Cadi Rhys Thomas	P
Fflur Evans	P	Kate Richards	P
Professor Dylan Foster Evans	P	Professor Stephen Riley	P
Graham Getheridge		Dominic Roche
Professor Hayley Gomez	P	Professor Karl Schmidt	P
Dr Sandy Gould	A	Professor Gavin Shaddick	A
Professor Julian Gould-Williams	P	Professor Katherine Shelton	P
Professor Clare Griffiths	A	Dr Andy Skyrme
Professor Mark Gumbleton		Professor Luke Sloan	A
Dr Natasha Hammond-Browning	P	Helen Spittle	A
Professor Adam Hedgecoe	P	Georgia Spry	P
Dr Jonathan Hewitt		Tracey Stanley
Madison Hutchinson	A	Professor Phil Stephens	P
Professor Aseem Inam		Professor Patrick Sutton	A
Dr Anthony Ince	A	Dr Catherine Teehan	P
Professor Nicola Innes	P	Dr Yasemin Sengul Tezel	P
Claire Jaynes		Dr Jonathan Thompson	P
Luke Jehu	A	Professor Damian Walford Davies	P
Professor Dafydd Jones	P	Matt Walsh	P
Dr Kathryn Jones	P	Professor Roger Whitaker	P
Dr Nicholas Jones	P	Professor Jianzhong Wu	P
Dr Hesam Kamalipour		Dr Xuesheng You

In Attendance

Katy Dale (minutes), Laura Davies, Sally-ann Efstathiou, Rhodri Evans (Secretary), Siân Marshall, Darren Xiberras

1124 Welcome and Introductions

Noted

1124.1 that this Special meeting of Senate had been called by the Chair, as requested at the previous meeting of Senate on 12 March 2025, in line with Ordinance 3 to discuss Academic Futures;

1124.2 that there was no decision required of Senate at this meeting and the item was for discussion; final proposals would be presented to Senate at its meeting in June to provide formal advice to Council.

1125 Apologies for Absence

Noted

1125.1 that apologies received would be recorded in the Minutes.

1126 Declaration of Interests

The Chair reminded the Committee members of their duty to disclose any potential conflicts of interest. No declarations of interest were noted.

1127 Academic Futures

Received and considered a presentation from the Chair and the Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

Noted

1127.1 that the consultation phase was ongoing and would close on 06 May 2025; the Voluntary Redundancy Scheme (VRS) would also close on this date; consultation had included staff from Schools and Colleges, students, and the Trade Unions and these would continue throughout the consultation phase;

1127.2 that 31 alternative proposals had been received by the initial deadline of 14 March and the time and effort to create these proposals was highlighted; all alternative proposals were carefully considered by the Academic Futures Task Group and were assessed on their ability to address the criteria and do so in the timescales required;

1127.3 that further proposals were welcomed and would be given equal and full consideration;

1127.4 that this was a genuine consultation and was an iterative process; it was expected that the proposals would change before being finalised;

1127.5 that alternative proposals taken forward provided enhancements and changes that could be enacted to ensure sustainability, academically and financially;

1127.6 that a discussion was held on how feedback on alternative proposals not taken forward was shared and a concern was raised that this appeared to be only shared verbally with a small group; it was confirmed that all alternative proposals (excluding those provided anonymously) would be provided with feedback and the College Pro Vice-Chancellors were undertaking this activity; detail was provided on how this had worked within the Colleges of Biomedical and Life Sciences and Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences;

1127.7 that alternative proposals from the School of Chemistry and School of Mathematics had been accepted and these schools had been removed from scope; consideration was being given to proposals from the Schools of Modern Languages, Music, and Biosciences;

1127.8 an alternative proposal for nursing was being considered which would enable continuation of adult, child and mental health nursing to provide a smaller cohort but more student-satisfied offering; this was being discussed with key partners (e.g. Welsh Government and HEIW);

1127.9 that since 1 November 2024, [Part Redacted] members of staff had been accepted for the Voluntary Severance Scheme; currently [Part Redacted] applications had been received for Voluntary Redundancy Scheme (VRS) and were being reviewed;

1127.10 a detailed review of staff in-scope for redundancy had been undertaken; this had seen a reduction from 1,807 headcount (1506.97 FTE) to 1,307 headcount (1077.31 FTE); four schools had also been removed from scope;

1127.11 that a discussion was held on the impact of VSS, VRS and removal of Schools from scope on the target reduction of 400 FTE; there was a lack of clarity over whether this figure would reduce as schools were taken out of scope or whether this would require Schools still within scope to increase their targets; the proposed staff FTE reduction for schools remaining in scope should not increase during the consultation process; it was confirmed the reduction of staff FTE would be dependent on the final agreed proposals, as this would confirm the changes in staff numbers, and the financial impact of the proposals;

1127.12 that there was an Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) document which was being updated throughout the consultation process; a final IIA would be produced for the final agreed proposals;

1127.13 that it was not possible to confirm when it would be known if compulsory redundancies were required, as this was dependent on the final agreed proposals and the number of staff who had been accepted under the VSS and VRS; there was also no decision as yet on whether a future VSS scheme would be implemented as this would also be dependent on the final proposals and the agreed timeline for implementation; the University wanted to ensure all possible mitigations had been undertaken in advance including voluntary schemes and examples such as flexible retirement and flexible working schemes;

1127.14 that a discussion was held on staff student ratios (SSRs) and the impact this would have on student experience; this was being discussed more widely in the sector and current evidence suggested SSRs did not directly impact on student experience; areas where the University performed more poorly in the NSS often related to matters not related to SSR;

1127.15 that discussions were being held on the process for reducing optional module offerings for the start of the next academic year, should there not be staff available to deliver them, and confirmation provided that the College Education Deans could permit schools, where necessary and appropriate, a slightly longer period to confirm programme information for 2025/26;

1127.16 that it was acknowledged that certainty could not be provided at this time given the agreed timeline for the iterative consultation process;

1127.17 that the need for robust and respectful engagement was highlighted, along with the challenges this was presenting for all; Senate members (and all staff) were encouraged to share their views and engage with the consultation process.

1128 Any Other Business

Noted there was no further business.