08 July 2020 
Amanda Darley, Head of Operations and Engagement
Welcome to July – though it may not feel like it due to a combination of the grey weather and reliving groundhog day over and over for the past 14 weeks, year-end and school summer holidays are almost upon us. Before we know it, it will be time for A-level results, clearing, and then a whole new intake of freshers for a new term (whatever that’s going to look like).
BUFDG
BUFDG’s new ‘term’ (our new subscription year) starts with the new financial year on 1 August, and we’re currently working hard to finalise the new e-learning modules that will be available to all BUFDG Pro subscribers in 2020/21. While we gave you an early gift of three new modules at the beginning of June (Expenses in HE, Benefits in HE, and Expenses & Benefits Reporting), there’s still a whole lot more that we are currently finalising, which should be ready in August.
So here’s what our BUFDG Pro subscribers can look forward to (as well as continued access to all our current modules):
We hope that more and more of you will use the e-learning modules that so many of you have access to as part of your HEI’s BUFDG Pro subscription. The winners of our recent e-learning competition provided some comments on what they thought of the e-learning (and as they had each completed over 20 modules, they should know!):
‘I would recommend all users access the courses, even for a refresher in areas that they are familiar with, as you always pick up a slightly different perspective by going back to the basics… we have requested our entire finance team complete certain modules’ (Deputy Director of Finance)
‘Learning & development are vital if you want to stay ahead, I have already seen members of my team saying they’ve completed & enjoyed the courses, we can see them put learning straight into practice’ (Head of Procurement)
‘I found the courses very interesting, informative and engaging. They are well structured and easy to navigate through at your own pace’ (Assistant Accountant)
‘I did find them very informative and well laid out… Plus the certificates will provide solid support for my CPD records’ (Assistant Accountant)
And moving on to what else is new for BUFDG, we’ve also been busy working on our plans to provide more services to members in digital and online formats. We’re currently making small, short-term changes (many of you have accessed our Time to Talk online sessions, and you might notice small changes on some webpages), but we’re also starting bigger, longer-term projects; and over the next 18 months or so you’ll see a lot of change in what we provide for you, how we interact with you, how you interact with us and with other members.
We’d love to have member input while we undertake our digital journey and we’ll shortly be inviting people to sign up to be part of our digital focus group to help us shape the future of BUFDG’s services - so look out for more information about that on our discussion boards over the next few days.
FUNDING
University finances hit the headlines in the mainstream press again this week after the IFS released a report on the financial sustainability of the HE sector, which used interesting assumptions to claim that up to 13 institutions could fail due to falls in income from the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in prominent articles in the BBC news and the Guardian, among other outlets.
HEPI responded to the report by pointing out flaws in many of the assumptions used, including a shortfall in undergraduates that may well not materialise. Wonkhe has also run the numbers, and explored the kind of bailouts the government could introduce to support those struggling providers. While the OfS has made no mention of additional support for universities, the government has elsewhere made clear it is working on “a process through which Higher Education providers at risk of closure will be able to apply to government to access a restructuring regime as a last resort”.
The government announced two measures last week to support and fund university research, as part of its R&D road map that will see the government aim to increase R&D investment to £22billion a year by 2025. From the Autumn, universities will be able to access low-interest loans, supplemented by government grants, to cover up to 80% of losses to research from a drop in the number of international students. There will also be a smaller pot of £280million available for grant extensions to support researcher salaries and other costs. Find out more here, including information about the new ‘Office for Talent’.
LEARNING, MEETINGS & ‘EVENTS’
We’ve got a number of online group meetings and Time to Talk sessions going on over the next few weeks, some of which will hopefully be relevant to you. There are several tax and procurement sessions coming up (see sections below for more details), and three Deputy FD ‘regional’ meetings.
In this brave new (digital) world you can attend any regional meetings that are convenient to you time-wise, but the three remaining Deputy FD meetings are nominally the South West meeting on 9 July, the South East meeting on 10 July, and the Midlands meeting on 17 July.
On 16 July Axiom will be hosting a live application demo of their solution to help finance professionals provide better financial planning and management in their HEI. Find out more and book here.
On 17 July Grant Thornton will present a Time to Talk session on Financial Modelling and Scenario Planning. The session will open with looking at where/how to start planning and some practical tips, for those new to scenario planning, and we’ll then delve deeper, using this week’s IFS report on financial sustainability in the HE sector as a starting point for discussion on the challenges ahead, what actions you can take now, preparing the organisation for difficult decisions and engaging financial stakeholders, among many other things. Find out more and book here.
We’re busy planning for an intense round of online conferences in the Autumn, with the TRAC conference, Tax conference and Management Accountants conference all taking a very different shape this year. We’re excited about offering you some great value events under difficult circumstances and we can’t wait to share more details with you shortly…
TAX & PAYROLL
The BUFDG guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme – Part II (‘JRS Endgame’ as it has become affectionately known by BUFDG’s tax staff) was updated on 6 July to include details of the changes to the scheme on 1 July.
Following the introduction of the zero-rating of e-publications from on 1 May 2020, the BUFDG guidance has been updated to reflect further developments.
The ‘Making Education Digital – Distance Learning and Overseas Taxes’ spreadsheet has now been updated. This spreadsheet can be used as a signpost for members to find additional information about a particular country and assist in their own research. More information on how to use the spreadsheet can be found here.
The latest issue of TaxHE was published last week and includes a number of useful JRS updates, information on change of use of zero-rated buildings as a result of coronavirus; the AG’s opinion in the Wellcome Trust VAT case; and HMRC-commissioned survey on Making Tax Digital; a number of administrative changes and updates, and much more! Read the latest issue here.
We’ve got two more tax related Time to Talk sessions coming up soon. At 2pm today (and also repeated at 10am tomorrow for anyone who can’t make it today) Loughborough University will give an update on Corporation Tax and University Sporting Facilities – book today’s session here or book tomorrow’s session here. And on 28 July KPMG will present a Time to Talk session taking you through the new DAC 6/EU Mandatory Disclosure rules for tax - find out more and book here. We’ve also got a webinar with Innovate Tax, regarding Oracle Fusion and tax, coming up on 5 August.
PROCUREMENT
On 15 July Hays will be presenting a Time to Talk session on Procurement skills for the future. What will the impact of Covid-19 be on the skills you need in HE in the future? You can find more details and book your place here.
On 20 July we will also be running a Time to Talk session with Crown Commercial Services focusing on Spend Analysis and Recovery (SARS) in the same week. SARS provides retrospective audit and analysis of your core spend and transactions and recovers any overpayments, overcharges or missed opportunities (such as discounts or rebates) - find out more and book here. And on 21 July we will be running a free of charge training course on Contract Law for all BUFDG and HEPA members with Capital Law - find more information and book here.
GENERAL
Gordon Marsden, former Shadow Minister for Education and Skills (2015-2019), has just contributed a blog post, We can and must avoid a bleak future for higher education, to the HEPI website. While it tends to side with the bleak outlook taken by the IFS in their recent report discussed above, (but also adding increasing tensions between the UK and China into the mix), the overall message suggests that universities should be bold and creative, and look at life-long learning as a way to reinvent the UK HE sector, culminating with five interesting suggestions for universities and HM Treasury to think about.
And finally, job of the fortnight is the role of Chief Financial Officer at Queen Mary, University of London. Find this, and other finance vacancies in the HE sector, on our jobs page.
