These included statements by the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor and President of the Academic Board on routine matters; policy changes; reports from Senate committees; a report of delegations exercised by the V-C under Senate's authority; bequests and donations; and an update on current legal matters. A number of confidential matters were also dealth with. The meeting was held at Customs House and I was late due to traffic.
The 2017 preliminary budget was approved (the budget proper to be approved early in 2017). The operating budget is expected to essentially balance. Expenditure on salaries will be contained somewhat, despite the 3% EBA rise from 1 January, by savings delivered by ESS. Implememtation of the Student Strategy is a featured expenditure item. A steady program of building is anticipated over the next few years. Income growth is slight to moderate, with an increasing dependency on international student fee income.
The V-C updated members on the implementation of ESS in Finance & HR and on the ITS restructure, but nothing was reported that staff don't already know.
The Queensland Education Minister has advised that because consensus couldn't be reached on the size and structure of university governing bodies, the status quo will remain. This is good news in terms of having a more democratic and represenatative Senate that includes elected and internal members alongside the UQ-nominated Government appointments and UQ's own appointees. The minister has advised that universities are free to remunerate members of governing bodies, but, for a variety of sensible reasons, there was not a consensus appetite at the meeting for the introduction of remuneration of Senators at UQ.
