BUFDG Digest 10 June

BUFDG

Welcome to the first Digest for June – it’s a bumper issue bursting with useful information and event details.

The urgent news this week (which was communicated to relevant members in other ways) was twofold: confirmation that researchers can qualify for the Job Retention Scheme, and any new staff you want to furlough must be furloughed from today, as the scheme is closing to new applications. In practice it’s probably too late to do so now, but if the staff in question work later shifts and haven’t yet worked today, it might be possible. As usual, Julia has produced some great information here and has updated our extensive Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – HE Focus document to reflect these changes.

We recently published the latest edition of the BUFDG Chair's Quarterly for those working on or with the Higher Education sector. It covers the cancellation of conferece, the tax, financing, and other challenges of Covid-19, the sector’s response to the crisis, and an article from colleagues at UNIAC.

FUNDING

On the 29 May the government announced over £10billion in R&D funding, including £8.4bn through UKRI. This is an increase of 20% over the prior year, and part of the plans to increase R&D investment to £22bn a year by 24/25. The announcement is welcome assurance from the government that it will expand research as a key part of the UK’s recovery from the pandemic.

In other policy news, on the 1 June DfE published details of how its student number controls policy will be implemented for 2020/21. There’s summary and analysis on Wonkhe as usual.

The OfS annual report was published 5 June. It also sets out the OfS’s progress in delivering against its strategic objectives and the work being carried out in partnership with the government and other organisations to adapt to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

With the specific difficulties around international students firmly in some people’s minds at present, it may be useful to look at the OfS briefing note on Supporting international students, which highlights the practical and innovative ways in which universities are working to support their international students, including looking at financial hardship. Not forgetting home students, the OfS also has a briefing note on Students without family support, which looks at practical steps universities are taking to support these students through the pandemic, looking at finances as well as other aspects.

LEARNING & MEETINGS

There’s lots to tell you about BUFDG learning this week, and some is included in the relevant sections below.

But firstly, well done to everyone who has been taking the opportunity to improve their finance skills and knowledge during lockdown by utilising BUFDG’s e-learning modules. We hope that everyone who has undertaken some e-learning has found it useful, even if you’re not a winner. Usage of our e-learning modules has increased by 99% during the course of the competition and it’s great to see so many people using the modules. But there are still plenty of other people in universities who could be benefitting from them, so spread the word and let them know: they’re not just for central finance staff - some modules can also help certain staff in your academic schools and departments improve their financial knowledge, and coding and reporting in your finance system.

We’ve updated the look and layout of our e-learning webpage and developed some new, interactive webpages to help people understand which e-learning courses are suitable for them, depending on what their role is and whether they work in central finance or another part of the university. We hope you find them useful – take a look!

So, who are our lucky competition winners? Congratulations to Peter Fotheringham of Dundee, Thomas Lewis of York St John and Katarzyna Trojan-Mizzi of Southampton who all tied for first place, completing 25 e-learning modules! In second place is Tracey Hill of Exeter with 24 modules, while Claire Wells of Staffordshire and Melanie Philpott of Exeter tied for third place with 22 modules completed. Well done everyone – we’ll be in touch shortly about your prizes. View the final e-learning leader-board to see who else made the final Top Ten. Well done, and thank you, to everyone who took part.

We hope that BUFDG members will be talking to each other a LOT in the week of 29 June as we’re running a free, virtual Time to Talk session on a different topic every day that week! See the sections below for details.

And don’t forget our regional FD meetings and Deputy FD meetings which are still to take place in June and July – they’re currently regional in name only, being entirely virtual, so you are free to attend any (and as many!) as you like, depending on what’s convenient and which agenda appeals the most.

Insight Investment would like to share their on-line training portal, that has been adapted for finance directors and treasurers, with our members. It is free to use and offers training, via videos and articles, in a variety of areas including the latest market intel coming out of central bank and back-to-basic training on financial instruments. Hopefully this is another useful resource in these challenging times - find out more about how to gain access here.

HESPA is running an Introduction to HE Data session on 29-30 June, which is open to BUFDG members. The course will cover a broad range of HE data sources, but focuses on HESA data. It costs £150+VAT and you can find out more here.

TAX & PAYROLL

We’re delighted to be partnering with BDO to present one of our free, virtual Time to Talk sessions on tax and accounting issues for universities and subsidiaries on Monday 29 June 11am-12pm. It will cover how to decide which activities to put through subsidiaries, the importance of service level agreements, and understanding the supply chain, as well as considering the impact of the COVID-19 trading environment on corporation tax, managing cash, reserves, losses and gift aid. Find out more and book here.

And, following on from the success of our initial regional International Forums, we have another free Time to Talk session on International Issues with PwC on Tuesday 20 June 2-3:30pm. There will be a particular focus on employees ‘displaced’ by COVID-19, including specific case studies. We hope to have attendees from all areas involved in the compliance for the people issues created by international working e.g. HR, finance, and tax. More information and booking is available here.

Last week, as a bonus for our BUFDG Pro subscribers, we launched three brand new modules early - Expenses in HE, Benefits in HE, and Expenses and Benefits Reporting. Find out more about the new modules here if you work in payroll, tax or even HR, or access them directly by logging on here.

The latest issue of TaxHE was published on 4 June, and it’s jam packed full of tax and payroll updates. Remember that if you want to receive the fortnightly TaxHE email direct to your inbox, you need to tick Tax and/or Payroll as your primary or secondary interest on your My BUFDG page.

PROCUREMENT

We’ve got two HEPA Time to Talk sessions coming up this month:

First up on Friday 19 June at 10am will be a session about the Legal Direct Award from Debbie Metcalfe at Achilles. Find out more and book here. Next up will be a session from the Crown Commercial Service’s Digital Team and James Fowles, Director of ICT Procurement at King’s College London, looking at the G-Cloud and Digital Outcomes & Specialist frameworks, at 10am on Monday 22 June. You can book your place here. You can also download the FAQs from the ‘time to talk’ session with Clyde & Co. covering PPN 02/20 (supplier relief due to covid-19).

The results of the Procurement Value Survey are out and have been sent to all respondents!  You can download a copy of the report here, and please get in touch with Ashley with any questions, comments or feedback.

Do you want to learn more about ISO 20400?  Then check out the latest in our series highlighting individual e-learning modules as this week the spotlight is on our Advanced Sustainable Procurement module. So to find out more about it, have a look at Ashley’s HEPA article.

And have you ever wondered what professional development is available for procurement leaders post MCIPS?  Find out here in a brilliant guest article by Debbie Shore of NEUPC.

COUNTER-FRAUD

It’s Time to Talk Fraud on Friday 3 July at 2pm in our free, virtual session where we’ll be joined by Julie Bruce and Kat Wasteney of KPMG. They’ll discuss all sorts from procurement fraud to misappropriation of assets, expenses fraud to cyber scams and collusion, and provide their expert analysis, including helping you understand ways to combat fraud within your institution. Book your place here.

CREDIT CONTROL

It’ll be Time to Talk Credit Control on Thursday 2 July from 10am-12pm in our virtual meeting to discuss any current, headline issues for credit control teams. This will be a great opportunity to share ideas and issues with fellow BUFDG members. Book your place here and contact Rachel with any agenda topics, suggestions and questions.

TREASURY

The Association of Corporate Treasurers is hosting a free online Festival of Treasury Transformation from 13-16 July. This is an international and fully virtual event with both live and pre-recorded sessions focused on all aspects of treasury during the current crisis and beyond.

GENERAL

We’ve got a great Time to Talk session coming up on Wednesday 1 July at 9:30am when Axiom and UCL will be presenting Higher Education: Planning for the Future in Uncertain Times. Axiom will be joined by Phil Harding, Director of Finance and Business Affairs at UCL, to discuss how to lead your organisation through this crisis by providing better financial planning and management, and by understanding the impact of internal and external factors that will affect your future finances. There is plenty planned for this session, so take a look at the details and book here.

On Monday Wonkhe held a digital event, University influence in a crisis – how political engagement is changing in Covid-19 with a number of interesting speakers. One of the main messages which all speakers agreed on was that universities need to engage, swiftly, with FE and regional government, to come up with a plan to integrate local tertiary education and the civic agenda to help regeneration and local economic recovery, feeding into the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, before someone else’s plans are forced upon them. One of the speakers, Rachel Wolf of public policy consultancy Public First, has published a blog on Wonkhe which also mentions how engaging with the civic agenda is going to be vital to the HE sector.

And finally, job of the fortnight is the Executive Director of Finance at the University of Glasgow to be accountable for the strategic leadership and direction of the Finance directorate and related functions across the University ensuring the long-term financial success of the institution. The successful candidate will be expected to add value to the University’s commercial initiatives and foster a business partnering approach across the University, and be a member of the Senior Management Group. The closing date is 16 June.