Agenda item

Report of the Principal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

The Board received the Principal’s General Reports updating them on a number of current issues including Awards and Prizes, Open House, CYM Regional Centres and Engagement with China.

Awards and Prizes

In addition to those Prizes and Awards listed, the Principal reported that Guildhall students had recently won three of the four possible prizes in Junior Ferrier and that ten of this year’s twelve 2^nd year Opera students had secured places at Glyndebourne or Garsington next summer.

Current Issues

The Principal reported that the annual HEFCE visit to the School had taken place last week and that a wide range of business had been covered.

With regard to financial provisions, the Principal reported that a lot currently hinged on the Autumn statement due on 25^th November 2015 as this would provide some clarity as to funding for the sector as a whole. Governors were reminded that the School’s submission for RISTA funding was still in progress and that a panel due to consider whether or not they fulfilled the ‘World Leading’ aspect would meet next week. The Principal stated that he felt that the School had every reason to be positive about their submission at this stage.

The Board were informed that both the Chairman and the Principal had attended the HEFCE annual meeting last week at which the Chief Executive of HEFCE had modelled four different scenarios that could heavily impact on the financial health of the sector in the near future. These included a 5% reduction in the teaching grant, a 20% increase in staff costs, a reduction in non-EU Students and ‘Brexit’. The Principal commented that the School were monitoring these developments closely and were engaged in discussions in different ways at various levels.

In response to a question on a possible Brexit, the Principal reported that, whilst he was fairly confident that there would be provisions/protections put in place for existing European students studying in the UK, this remained a real concern given that in excess of 35% of the School’s students were from mainland Europe.

The Principal went on to report that the Government had now published a Higher Education Green Paper which had four main ‘headlines’. Each of these were discussed as follows:

Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)

The highly anticipated proposal to put in place a Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), intended to serve as a robust assessment of teaching quality alongside the assessment of Research Quality which currently existed. Governors were informed that a maximum fee cap would be set for those institutions successful in TEF and providers would then be entitled to raise their fees in line with inflation up to this amount for new students from 2017/18. The Principal commented that the Green Paper demonstrated a marked shift towards funding students as opposed to institutions.

Market Entry

Governors were informed that the Green Paper signals a strong desire to create more competition, particularly through new market entrants by removing all unnecessary barriers to entry into higher education.

The future ‘architecture’ of Higher Education

The Principal reported that the Green Paper proposes to establish a new regulator and student champion, the Office for Students, and to introduce a single, light touch regulatory system for all providers of higher education. HEFCE and the Office for Fair Access would be merged to avoid any duplication.

Research

The Principal reported that the Green Paper sets out support for the continuation of dual funding for research.

The Principal stated that the School would be engaging in follow up discussions on this and would keep the Board apprised of any progress.

RECEIVED.