We are coming up to that time of year when a Head of School’s emails change in number and urgency. Holidays are approaching, and rather than slowing down the traffic, this increases the number of tasks that have to be completed before the end of the University’s financial year and also the paperwork that everyone wants to get off their desks and onto mine before they disappear for a few weeks.  But before we break out the suntan lotion, holiday shirts and sandals, I thought it also seemed like a good moment to take stock of the past year and how far we have come during that time.  As I said at the recent school symposium, we have embarked on a journey and we have a long way to go, but we are making progress. I don’t see this as a moment to want to review everything that has passed as if we have arrived at an end point, rather to reflect on what we have learned and what we can improve upon.

I think we can look forward to the next twelve months with greater optimism than we could have done at this time last year. On teaching, we will have the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), which has rumbled on for some time, coming to fruition and being given real teeth.  As a new, larger school, we are in a much better position to get positive results in the TEF.  We can bring together staff across subject areas to work to common teaching practices, we can avoid duplicating meetings and save your time and effort while achieving better results for our students.

We are also going to be in a better place for the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). Although I don’t think these external requirements should be dictating all our decisions they do help us to focus on getting things right – to identify what we are good at, to make the most of our assets, to decide where to concentrate our resources, to have a more joined up culture across disciplines and to plan more effectively for research impact.  Being under a common umbrella gives us greater capacity to achieve all of these things and to plan our future strategy more effectively.

Personally, when I look back at our progress, I can see very clearly how we have been able to bring five different ways of doing things together, and to draw on good practice from each. Inevitably there were anomalies, different interpretations of how rules should be applied and, at times, a lack of transparency in some areas.  The process of scrutiny that we have gone through to standardise processes has helped, I think, to ensure greater inclusivity, more consistent and fairer measures of individuals’ performance, and more positive approaches to equality and diversity.

I’m particularly pleased to see such positive and motivated research groups emerging across the new school. Increasingly we see communities of scientists coming together who can really make a difference by combining their expertise.  We also have the opportunity to give more attention to the needs of some groups who have too often been overlooked in the old structures.  I’m thinking particularly of our research associates, PhD students and early career researchers.  They are the future of the school and they deserve greater consideration and prominence.  We are working hard to ensure this happens.

Looking out of my window I see staff and students enjoying the sun, and in a few days we will be getting together for our school event in Exhibition Park. Everyone is feeling more relaxed and looking forward to summer holidays, so I’m sorry to finish the academic year with such a serious blog.  However, I don’t want to gloss over the inevitable pain that we have experienced over the past, rather bruising, year.  The first part of the journey – probably the hardest part – is over but there is still a way to go, and the new school is very much a work in progress.  But we can congratulate ourselves on what has been achieved so far.  Thanks to you who have helped make this happen.  I look forward to working with you all over the coming academic year to strengthen the school’s teaching and research base, and to ensure we make a positive and visible impact with both of these endeavours.  In the meantime, I want to wish you and your families a very restful and enjoyable summer.