No 6275
Wednesday 25 July 2012
Vol cxlii No 40
pp. 827–861
10 September, Monday. Library closes.
17 September, Monday. Library re-opens.
1 October, Monday. Michaelmas Term begins. Congregation of the Regent House at 9.30 a.m.: Vice-Chancellor’s Address, and Election and Admission of the Proctors.
2 October, Tuesday. Full Term begins.
The final ordinary issue of the Reporter for the 2011–12 academical year will be published on 1 August.
The Vice-Chancellor gives notice that he has received with gratitude a benefaction of £245,000 from the University of Cambridge Fives and Rackets Association Trust Ltd to support the fitting out of the new Sports Centre at West Cambridge: £194,000 towards the costs of the Fives courts, and £51,000 towards the costs of the Squash courts.
The Council gives notice that the report by the actuary on the actuarial valuation as at 31 March 2011 has now been published.
The key details regarding the outcome of the valuation are:
• The scheme’s funding level on its technical provisions basis as at 31 March 2011 was 92%, which revealed a £2.9 billion deficit. The fund position has deteriorated from the level at the previous valuation on 31 March 2008, when the funding level was 103% with a surplus of £707 million.
• In arriving at the assumptions to be adopted for the technical provisions, the trustee board has changed the rate at which future liabilities are discounted to the present value, from 6.4% per annum to 6.1% per annum, which served to strengthen the funding basis of the scheme. In the period 2008 to 2011, the fund also saw (amongst other things) investment returns which were lower than the level assumed in the 2008 valuation, and incremental and promotional salary increases which were higher than had been expected.
• Based on the trustee board’s gilts funding basis, an alternative basis that has been adopted previously, the scheme’s funding level was 68%. At the valuation date the scheme was 58% funded on the buyout basis (the basis equivalent to that required to purchase annuities with an insurance company), and on the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) basis the scheme was 93% funded.
• Because the scheme was less than fully funded on its technical provisions basis, it was necessary to compile a recovery plan to eliminate the £2.9 billion deficit. It was agreed that the recovery plan will be for a period of ten years, and it is made up of an additional allowance for investment returns over that assumed in the assumptions used for the technical provisions plus additional contributions over and above the cost of future accrual as estimated by the actuary.
• Under the recovery plan, the employer contribution rate will remain at 16% of Pensionable Salaries up to 31 March 2017. For the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2021, the employer contribution rate will be 2% above the level of the future service contribution rate as calculated by the actuary at that date, taking account of the rates for the final salary and career average benefits sections of USS.
The full report is available from the USS website at http://www.uss.co.uk; alternatively, copies of the report can be obtained from: Mrs S. E. Curryer, Head of Pensions Administration, Human Resources, 4 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RZ.
The University Combination Room will be closed from 3.30 p.m. on Friday, 17 August, until 9 a.m. on Monday, 3 September 2012.