Student Services Annual Report 2010/11 by University of Southampton

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Working together to enrich studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives

Student Services

Contents Page No.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

Background

Department Highlights

Transition

Focus Areas for 2011-12

Education Support

Student Services Centre

University Residences

Wellbeing

Conclusion

Financial Report

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Background This is the eighth annual review and second annual report produced by Student Services. During the period since the last report the department has undergone significant changes as a result of the Transition programme. However, our focus remains the same; to provide excellent service to undergraduate and postgraduate students of the University of Southampton, and to provide additional support services to university staff, members of the public, employers and landlords. In 2010-11 Student Services was one of the Professional Services within the University of Southampton. Prior to the Transition Programme it was headed by a Director and 4 Assistant Directors; with each Assistant Director leading one of the four operational units of the department (See Figure 1). This structure remained in place throughout the academic year 2010-11. The department has a number of facilities including the Student Services Centre, the Jubilee Sports Centre, indoor and outdoor sports facilities, an Early Years Centre, three houses on University Road (where consultations on disabilities, emotional support and specific learning difficulties take place) as well as a staff presence across all the University campuses and halls of residence.

Fig 1: Student Services Structure for 2010-11 Student Services Director

Business Development Unit

Education Support

Dyslexia Service Enabling Service Needs Assessment Centre

Student Advice and Guidance

Career Destinations Financial Information and Assistance Student Advisory Team Visa Guidance

University Residences

Wellbeing

Accommodation Service

Counselling Service

Glen Eyre Halls Complex

Early Years Centre

Smalls Halls and University Houses

First Support

Wessex Lane Halls Complex

Residences Support Sport and Recreation

Annual Planning Cycle Student Services encourages all staff to be involved in its annual planning process. Every year, members of each service, and the department as a whole, are asked to look back on what has gone well and what needs to be improved. Our professional reflection, customer feedback on our service quality and our management information are used to inform and prioritise the actions we will take in the coming year to improve our service delivery. When our departmental and service objectives are set we ask individual members of staff to take responsibility for developing these in the coming year. These objectives are formalised in our Personal Performance Development and Review (PPDR) when line managers and staff discuss targets for the coming years and identify key performance indicators for individuals and the services. The annual planning cycle is illustrated in Figure 2. The Directorate team meet in October to agree jointly on the Action Plan, including actions for Year 2 and 3, driving forward the improvement of the department.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Fig 2: Student Services Annual Planning Cycle

Student Services is committed to embedding reflection and feedback into the daily work of the department. In support of this, its Evaluation Strategy Group (ESG) was established in 2008 with representatives taken from each section in the department. ESG take responsibility for:

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Reviewing service action plans for common themes to agree department wide highlights and action points;

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Ensuring that the University’s strategic Education and Research plans are considered in the action points identified (2010-11 onwards) ;

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Ensuring, where applicable, that incomplete actions are carried over from the previous year;

As a result of the transitions programme ESG was placed on hold from April onwards to allow the new structure for both Student Services and the Faculties to be implemented. As such, the ESG did not produce the 2011-12 areas of focus identified below, which have arisen from consultation with managers and their respective services.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Working together to enrich our studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experiences

Student Services It is Student Servicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; vision to be recognised as a world leader in the delivery of student centred services in a Higher education environment which values first class education, research and enterprise.

We strive to be a significant deciding factor in a student choosing this university over another, and wish to be a real recruitment tool, offering a world class service.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Department Highlights 2010-11 Student Services contributes to key developments across the University of Southampton as well as focussing on the development of its own services. Supporting University Strategy

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Student Services were part of a group who designed and undertook an audit of employability related activities across the University, together with external benchmarking of comparator institutions in order to prepare a report and proposed baseline offer for consideration at Council.

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Student centred development of university policies and procedures have been ensured as a result of Student Services input. This has been given in many areas including; student maternity, discipline, safeguarding, fitness to practice/fitness to study, and reasonable adjustments/exam policies.

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University Residences have contributed to the University Residences Strategy, which was agreed by the University Executive Group in October 2010 and will ensure that the provision of residential accommodation for our students will continue to be in line with the University’s strategic plans.

Improving operations to deliver a better service

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Student Services Centre led on the investigation into the bringing together of studentships and scholarships to one central resource, improving ease of access and awareness of this funding for the student body.

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Matrix accreditation was gained across all services within the Student Services Centre. The matrix standard promotes the delivery of high quality information; advice and/or guidance by ensuring organisations review, evaluate and develop their service, encourage the take up of professionally recognised qualifications, and promote the continuous professional development of their staff.

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Sport and Recreation are a TASS (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) hub, supporting 39 athletes across 22 sports in 2010-11. Notable successes this year included 3 athletes being selected for Senior GB teams in their respective sports. In 2011-12 this will grow to include the Oxford hub, supporting up to 70 athletes.

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The Early Years Centre achieved a ‘good’ rating, the second highest evaluation, moving from the 2007 score of ‘satisfactory’. as a result of the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspection completed in January 2011. The rating is based on an inspection/review of 16 standards.

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Education Support completed a successful competitive tender exercise to outsource the Mentoring Service. This will allow us to deliver process, service and capacity improvements to meet increased demand from students for this type of support and to offer a flexible service that is responsive to varying student needs.

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University Residences implemented a new model of centrally allocating accommodation to students during the summer intake period. This allowed University Residences to allocate more quickly and have an overview of all Halls allocations and to be able to take proactive action to secure more rooms via a head leasing scheme, as was required.

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Group delivery of services implemented after successful pilot in 2010-11 with the Counselling Service and will now be rolled out to other services in the department. After reviewing service provision, Student Services has begun moving away from one to one appointments with students towards a group delivery model (where appropriate). Counselling increased the promotion and delivery of group and workshop counselling, and the 70 participants rated the content and quality of the sessions highly in their evaluations. Had those 70 attendees not had the option of joining a Group or Workshop they may have accessed One to One Counselling and had up to 6 sessions each. This would have amounted to a total of 420 additional hours needing to have been provided by the Service.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Transformative change to the provision of out of hours service to halls delivered, allowing Residences Support to begin as a new service in September 2010

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Student Services introduced key performance indicators (KPIs) to enable consistent monitoring of service delivery standards.

Crisis management

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The department worked in conjunction with the Students’ Union and set up an agreement that Libyan students and other students from areas of political unrest would be able to access funds if unable to get money out of their own country. Funding was secured proactively from the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Education to deliver support for students impacted by any sort of international crisis, including those in Japan affected by the tsunami.

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During periods of adverse weather our staff went to great effort to ensure that our students were safe and well during University closure. This was achieved as a result of Student Services’ contingency planning work, which ensured a structured and measured response in the face of unexpected events, enabling services to maintain operations during times of crisis.

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The Icelandic volcanic cloud affected a large number of university staff and students – the Student Services Centre was able to react to the situation rapidly and to act as a telephone hub for the whole university and all staff/students affected by the closure of UK airspace. Student Services staff also travelled to Calais to assist students who had been stranded as result of the ash situation.

Developing and engaging our staff

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The Transition programme has led to us ensuring that for each post we have consistent job descriptions and training plans, whilst also identifying all relevant processes and owners for all services.

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Development of staff at all levels is key, and Student Services are keen to facilitate staff involvement. Opportunities include the Leadership Development Network and the Student Services Communications Group.

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The Leadership Development Network, to which all staff at all levels and with all interests are invited, continued to operate jointly with Student and Academic Administration Department in 2010-11 and focussed on issues such team building, conflict management and leadership skills. All staff who attended rated the workshop as excellent and felt that it was: “an inspirational presentation” When asked what they would do differently after the workshop: “Pay more consideration to my recovery time after a crisis when dealing with difficult situations” “analyse my own behaviour and better understand the drivers of certain behaviours” Feedback following the Dealing with Conflict workshop delivered in June 2010

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A full audit of all communications was completed by the Student Services Communications Group, reducing costs for the department. All service and department customer communications are developed and shared in this group whose membership is rotated to develop knowledge, expertise and understanding of our customer base.

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Student Services celebrates staff engagement with an annual awards ceremony (the next one to take place in December 2011), recognising both individuals and teams that have performed exceptionally to enhance the student experience.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Transition Following on from the University wide Transition programme, Student Services submitted a proposal to the Faculty Design Group that would allow us to meet our savings target for 2010-11. Student Services used the transition year to prepare a Department which can deliver services to increasing numbers of students, studying in increasingly varied modes and from increasingly varied backgrounds. This preparation is being driven by the University Strategy and the Education Plan which projects potential student population growth of 10,000 over 10 years. After a University wide consultation process that informed several changes to this proposal, a new structure was agreed. Staff moved over to their new posts on staggered dates, with the new Student Services structure in place from the 1st August 2011. A number of Community and Operational (CAO) staff, based in University Residences were identified as being more appropriately placed with the Estates and Facilities Department; these roles will be moving to this department on 1st November 2011, having been delayed slightly to ensure a smooth and efficient intake of new students at the end of September 2011. Student Services continued to deliver services to a high standard in spite of the challenges faced by the restructure and was able to achieve this by fostering improved communication and partnership working. The Student Experience Unit replaced and expanded upon the Business Development Unit on the 1st August 2011. Its remit is to lead on strategic development for the department and to support the teams to deliver improvements to the service provisions made to students. The reduced level of staff resources available as a result of the Transition period has resulted in services being unable to devote time to action planning at the originally intended point of the year; this work will be completed as soon as possible to further inform our areas of focus for the year to come. The new Student Services structure can be found below. Fig 3 - Student Services Structure for 2011-12 Student Services Director

Enabling Services

Student Services Centre

University Residences

Sport and Wellbeing

Early Years Centre

Enabling Services support students with physical impairments and/or learning difficulties in every aspect of university life. They and also offer emotional support and assist students in crisis.

The Student Services Centre offers a range of advice to students on topics such as accommodation, financial assistance, visas, careers, and the payment of all University fees.

University Residences manage the Halls of Residence and includes both Day and Night staff. Support is offered to assist students with communal living and to maintain a safe environment.

Sport and Wellbeing includes all of the sporting facilities at the Jubilee Sports Centre, Wide Lane Sports Ground, gyms in the Halls of Residence and the Watersports Centre.

The Early Years Centre provides high quality education and childcare for children aged four months to five years

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

Student Experience Unit

The Student Experience Unit provides support (including process improvements, projects etc.) to services and to the management network within Student Services, and provides coordination of department wide activities.

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Focus areas for 2011-12 Departmental Student Services’ strategic planning will focus on several key areas in 20111-12, and these will include:

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To continue to support the university strategy, focusing on employability, internationalisation and the projected increase in student numbers.

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Student Services will offer global support and access to our services for all students, irrespective of their teaching campus

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To maintain awareness of the changing external environment and what this may mean for our student population.

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Continue to understand and improve our own internal business; Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be used to inform our strategic planning for improving the service offered to all stakeholders.

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Develop our staff in order to improve the services offered.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Supporting you to succeed

Education Support

Education Support delivers services direct to disabled students and those with specific learning difficulties (SpLD), e.g. dyslexia and dyspraxia. The team works in partnership with faculties and other professional services to support students through needs assessments, specialist tuition, learning support advice and guidance. Within a broader University context the service makes contributions to the recruitment, progression and retention of students with disabilities or specific learning difficulties. Education Support continues to work towards a more progressive model of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;disability supportâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to bring about greater inclusive practice in the University.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Education Support Highlights 2010-11 In 2010-11 Education Support comprised of 3 distinct services, providing support for learning; Enabling Services, Dyslexia Services and the Needs Assessment Centre. In many cases, the support is dependent on students being able to access funding in form of the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA).

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Completion of a proposal for centralising disability funding to enable the maximum number of students to benefit from this support. International students are not eligible for DSA but are provided with the same services at a direct cost to Student Services.

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A new registration process was implemented by Enabling Services to increase the number of students registering with the Education Support services.

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Dyslexia Services increased the use of electronic equipment to enable delivery of tutorials to students off campus, i.e. Skype, Adobe Connect.

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All services worked to identify potential barriers to effective two way internal communication and solutions to these barriers, through weekly team meetings and monthly one-to-one meetings.

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Needs Assessment Centre identified a need to provide more support for International students in the use of specialised equipment for those with disabilities. Individual training sessions on how to use the specialised equipment were delivered.

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Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

Needs Assessment Centre maintained accredited status from Disabled Students’ Allowance Quality Audit Group (DSA-QAG) confirming its ability to assess the needs of University of Southampton students and those in the outreach centres in other universities. DSA-QAG audits are conducted on an annual review cycle.

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Guiding you every step of the way

Student Services Centre The Student Services Centre has continued to grow the services it offers to students in its single location. In 2009-10, it added Career Destinations and the Visa Guidance teams to those available already. Each year it increases the number of interactions it handles whilst reducing the number of staff required to do this. It is a success story in terms of productivity. In 2010-2011 112,177 student interactions were dealt with either at the frontline desk, by email or by phone. The majority of queries relate to accommodation or tuition fees although there are seasonal favourites such as obtaining an ID card or finding out about graduation.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Student Services Centre Highlights 2010-11 The Student Services Centre hosts Financial Information and Assistance (FIA), Career Destinations and Visa Guidance as well as handling an array of University wide enquiries through its Student Advisory Team. It prides itself in providing good advice, information, guidance and services, particularly to its student customers.

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Matrix accreditation gained across all services. The matrix standard promotes the delivery of high quality information, advice and/or guidance by ensuring organisations review, evaluate and develop their service, encourage the take up of professionally recognised qualifications, and promote the continuous professional development of their staff.

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We carried out a significant level of work during 2010-11 in conjunction with Finance to enable Student Services Centre staff to engage in cash handling in 2011-12, improving the service and reducing queue time within the Student Services Centre.

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Visa Guidance maintained their high application success rate, despite having to adapt to changes in the UK Border Agency process. 99.74% of those students who applied for a visa with the support of the team were successful in obtaining one. Visa Guidance has also had key documents translated into Mandarin to assist the large cohort of Chinese students in obtaining a visa.

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Student Services Centre have looked at alternative methods of service delivery; this has included FIA delivering webinar appointments remotely and Visa Guidance have run Pre-sessional Visa Application Group Workshops which were attended by 1100 students in 2010-11 and reduced repeat student contact.

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Partnership working with Student Academic Administration has enabled an automatically generated email to be sent to students before their visa expires, encouraging them to engage with the Visa Guidance team at an early stage.

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The Excel Southampton Placement Programme has arranged 116 placements this year (the programme began in 2009 with 5 placements). This included expansion to international placements with 6 students being placed with employers in China this year.

“I have just been able to secure a brilliant job working in corporate fundraising at Save the Children’s [head office]. Without [my] internship I would not have had the required skills and necessary experience to secure such a great job to start my career.” Feedback to Career Destinations, Excel Southampton Intern (Summer 2011)

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Career Destinations incorporated Community Volunteering activities within the core offerings and resource requirements of Student Services, working in partnership with the Students’ Union.

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The Graduate Passport (launched in 2009-10) has continued to grow, with nearly 4000 students having registered since Oct 2009. The involvement of employers has continued to increase, with JP Morgan sponsoring several events in 2010/11 and with more employers sponsoring the scheme in the future.

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Provision of Career Destinations events specifically for international students has increased enabling this student cohort to maximise their chances of finding work here in the UK or back in their home country.

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More Career Destinations events were provided, expanding the breadth of income generating events, such as Speed Networking and Boot Camp.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Helping you feel at home

University Residences

University Residences support students applying for halls of residence through the application process and allocating rooms according to student needs. In addition they provide advice and guidance to students to ensure they stay safe and secure in professionally managed accommodation. University Residences manage over 5100 rooms in over 20 halls of residence. A turnover of ÂŁ22,998,133 was generated through the successful provision of university-run student accommodation in 2010-11.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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University Residences Highlights 2010-11 University Residences comprises the Accommodation Service and the Halls management, situated inside the Student Services Centre, as well as at the Halls of Residence.

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University Residences saw the benefit of working closely with the new Residences Support team and the Students’ Union to resolve issues and build relationship with local neighbourhoods.

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University Residences maintained their accreditation for the fifth consecutive year through the University United Kingdom (UUK) Code for Student Housing.

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Continued to work in partnership with Southampton City Council and Solent University to operate the SASSH accreditation scheme, for private rented housing in Southampton. In 2010-11 students carried out 240,866 property searches on the dedicated SASSH website, compared to 151,334 in 2009-10.

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Worked through the initial stages with Winchester City Council to obtain access to the Council’s housing list for our students to use for the first time.

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University Residences completed a full audit of rooms to assess current state and future suitability for adaptations required by disabled students. This, along with the already improved management of applications of this student group, will allow University Residences to better allocate and meet the needs and requests of disabled students.

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University Residences completed an important step toward the University Residence Strategy with the closure of Chamberlain Hall, the fulfilment of the related decant plan, and the provision for additional residence space for students through obtaining 160 additional units through Liberty Living (bringing the total number of rooms available for our students at this location to 309).

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There was an increase in revenue in 2010- 11 from University Residences of £1,268,949 from the previous year along with a lower number of empty rooms, averaging 2.58% for the year (down from 4.90% for 2009-10).

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An additional £250,000 was made available in 2010-11 for improvements to the halls, supplementary to a further £250,000 invested in 2009-10. This combined additional funding of £500,000 over two years represents a 41% increase from the budget for 2008–9. Major areas of investment in 2010–11 included redevelopment of kitchens and room layouts in J Block, part of the Glen Eyre Complex, improvements to heating systems in some halls and the necessary works of upgrading windows and fire doors in some halls.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Promoting wellness in the University Community

Wellbeing

Wellbeing provides services and facilities which promote physical, social and emotional wellbeing in the University community for both staff and students.

Wellbeing includes Sports and Recreation, the Early Years Centre and Support Services including Counselling Service, Residences Support Service and First Support.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Wellbeing Highlights 2010-11 Wellbeing includes the Early Years Centre, Sport and Recreation and (in 2010-11) the Support Services; First Support, Counselling and Residences Support. These services are responsible for promoting physical, emotional and social wellbeing in the University community.

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Sport and Recreation are a TASS hub (Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme), supporting 39 athletes across 22 sports in 2010-11. Notable successes this year include 3 athletes being selected for Senior GB teams in their respective sports. In 2011-12 this will grow to include the Oxford hub, supporting up to 70 athletes.

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Sport and Recreation have two talented athletes who are in line to be selected for the 2012 Olympics (dependant on qualification) and one former student (who still trains with us) has already been selected for Team GB 2012.

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Sport and Recreation (in collaboration with local partners) hosted the Access to Disability Sport Conference 2011, increasing the profile of Paralympic sport, sharing best practice, providing learning opportunities, influencing perceptions and celebrating the achievements of athletes and performers with disabilities.

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The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) completed their inspection of the Early Years Centre in January 2011. We are delighted that the Early Years Centre moved from the 2007 rating of ‘satisfactory’ to ‘good’, the second highest rating. The rating is based on an inspection/review of 16 standards.

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In 2010-11 several members of staff undertook further qualifications, supported by Student Services; Samantha Daniels, one of the Early Years Centre’s Senior Practitioners completed the requirements for and was awarded the Early Years Professional Status degree in 2010-11. All 36 Early Years Centre staff successfully completed The Child Protection Awareness Certificate in 2010-11, a qualification covering the issue of abuse of children. The Early Years Centre completed a training plan for all posts. Currently, 27 staff have attained the NVQ level 3 qualification; 5 are in process; and two apprentices are working on the first level (NVQ 2) towards future achievement of level 3.

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Security and safety was significantly improved at the Early Years Centre this year with the installation of a new door access system and closed circuit television.

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The Residences Support team worked closely with all Student Services groups and the faculties, providing more consistent support and referrals for students, improving provision of timely and holistic support for students.

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The Residences Support Service reviewed and revised the Hall Regulations with regard to disciplinary procedure. There is a clear disciplinary and appeal process for how staff action and manage these issues, thus providing more definition and consistency for students.

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Improved collection and collation of data in the Residences Support team to track service delivery and quality of service.

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The First Support team were the first group of the Support Services to move into the Student Services Centre, in April 2011. This provided easy ‘one-stop’ access for students to a variety of support services which is of importance especially when one is in crisis. It also provided improved liaison between First Support staff and other practical support services staff.

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In recognition of the value of the First Support service to the students and the Student Services as a whole, an extra Practitioner position was approved through the Transition programme. This will result in two full time equivalent Practitioners for the service.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Counselling successfully increased the promotion and delivery of group and workshop counselling to undergraduate and post graduate students and staff. The 70 participants rated the content and quality of the sessions highly in their evaluations.

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The introduction of an electronic registration and risk assessment system allowed for a greater level of awareness and prioritisation of students’ counselling needs at an earlier contact point.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Conclusion 2010-11 has been a challenging year of transitions, during which Student Services have worked hard in order to maintain our ability to support students and all of our customers, while further developing our provision to provide greater flexibility and an enhanced quality of service. During this time, we have continued to work in partnership with other parts of the university and with our other stakeholders to ensure the continuity of service for all. The external changes being imposed upon University funding mean that students will be focussing on value for money more than ever before, and it is crucial that Student Services maintain provision of high quality services that are valued by all stakeholders. In the coming year Student Services will continue to make a significant contribution to student recruitment, retention and attainment. Our services are critical to students achieving to the best of their abilities and can play a fundamental role in a student successfully completing their chosen qualification at the University. We remain committed to the goals of the University Strategy and intend to focus our efforts in 2011-12 on the key strategic themes of employability and growth in student numbers. Whilst doing this, we will continue to embed our new structure, delivering improved roles for our staff and continued excellence through all of our individual services.

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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Student Services Financial Report 2010-11 (Extract from University of Southampton Management Accounts)

Student Services Annual Report 2010-11

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