Vice-Chancellor’s Council Update: 23 June meeting

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  • This update includes thanks to the outgoing Students’ Union representatives and welcome to the incoming sabbatical officers who will be joining Council meetings from July onwards
  • The meeting included an update from Oxford University Press (OUP) on their 2024/25 results and future plans
  • Council also discussed preparations for the next three-year settlement

The Council meeting on 23 June was the last meeting for our wonderful Students’ Union representatives, Eleanor Miller and Lauren Schaefer, as they hand over the reins in July to the next set of sabbatical officers. Lauren and Eleanor have been extremely diligent in their work over the past year in terms of providing input to a large number of University committees, and leading the work on reforming the Students’ Union to make it more representative of our student population. We thank them immensely for their contribution.

The new sabbatical officers with responsibility for Undergraduate and Postgraduate students are Seun Sowunmi and Wantoe T Wantoe respectively. We look forward to working with Seun and Wantoe on key Council business from the next meeting in July, and with their colleagues Alisa Brown and Shermar Pryce in other areas.

Business for the 23 June meeting included an update from Oxford University Press' senior leadership on their 2024/25 results and their growth strategy for the next five years. OUP has three divisions: academic, English language teaching and education. Each of these has its own opportunities and challenges in a global marketplace, but the Press is focused on investing in high growth areas while protecting core business. OUP continues to be able to transfer funds to the University every year which helps to fund scholarships and other priority activities in support of our shared mission: the advancement of learning by teaching and research.

The other focus of the meeting was on the planning assumptions for the next three-year settlement. This will be the second settlement to be agreed following the Finance White Paper reforms agreed by Council in 2022, and will set charges for space, services and other central University activities (the contribution) for the three years starting in August 2026. This will give departments certainty over these costs, and thereby enable them to plan more effectively.

And finally, a reminder that there is still time to send in feedback on the Strategic Plan for 2025–2030 (login with your Oxford SSO). I am very keen to hear your views and make sure this plan represents the key areas you want to see develop in the coming years.

I hope that this blog helps to demystify Council and its discussions. Please let us know if you found it useful or have any feedback: you can submit feedback via vice-chancellor@admin.ox.ac.uk.

We encourage all staff to consider putting themselves forward for committees and other governance groups: our current elections page provides relevant information.