Notices

Calendar

12 December, Wednesday. Last ordinary issue of the Reporter in Michaelmas Term.

19 December, Wednesday. Michaelmas Term ends.

25 December, Tuesday. Christmas Day. Scarlet Day.

5 January, Saturday. Lent Term begins.

9 January, Wednesday. First ordinary issue of the Reporter in the Lent Term.

15 January, Tuesday. Full Term begins.

Amending Statutes for Fitzwilliam College

3 December 2018

The Vice-Chancellor begs leave to refer to his Notice of 31 October 2018 (Reporter, 6525, 2018–19, p. 106), concerning proposed amending Statutes for Fitzwilliam College. He hereby gives notice that in the opinion of the Council the proposed Statutes make no alteration of any Statute which affects the University, and do not require the consent of the University; that the interests of the University are not prejudiced by them, and that the Council has resolved to take no action upon them, provided that the Council will wish to reconsider the proposed Statutes if they have not been submitted to the Privy Council by 3 December 2019.

Notice of a benefaction

3 December 2018

The Vice-Chancellor gives notice that he has accepted with gratitude a benefaction of £250,000 from the Turner-Kirk Charitable Trust as endowment to support the provision of Kirk Distinguished Visiting Fellowships at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 3, p. 176) to establish regulations to govern the Kirk Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Fund.

Elections to the Council in Class (c)

30 November 2018

The Vice-Chancellor announces that the following persons have been elected to serve as members of the University Council in class (c) from 1 January 2019 for four years:

Class (c) (other members of the Regent House):

Dr Sam Ainsworth, CHU, Dr Ruth Charles, N, Dr Nicholas Holmes, T, and Dr Andrew Sanchez, TH.

Details of the poll and of the transfer of votes under the Single Transferable Vote regulations are as follows:

Number of valid votes cast: 861 (no invalid votes) (Quota: 173)

	First count	Transfer of Ms Cannon’s votes	Second count	Transfer of Dr Holmes’ surplus	Third count	Transfer of Dr Charles’ surplus	Fourth count	Result
Dr Sam Ainsworth, CHU	165	+9	174		174		174	Third elected
Dr Richard Anthony, JE	125	+27	152	+10.05	162.05	+3.2	165.25
Ms Georgina Lyndsey Cannon, F	88	-88
Dr Ruth Lisa Chadwick Charles, N	147	+35	182		182	-9	173	Second elected
Dr Nicholas John Holmes, T	197		197	-24	173		173	First elected
Dr Andrew Sanchez, TH	139	+9	148	+12.75	160.75	+5.76	166.51	Fourth elected
Non-Transferable		8	8	+1.2	9.2	+0.04	9.24
Total	861		861		861		861

Report of the Council on the use of external finance in accordance with the authority granted by Grace 2 of 10 May 2018: Notice in response to Discussion remarks

3 December 2018

The Council has received the remarks made at the Discussion on 6 November 2018 (Reporter, 6526, 2018–19, p. 118) concerning the above Report (Reporter, 6522, 2018–19, p. 63).

Dr Watson notes that a decision has already been made to issue a bond to sustain the University’s work but raises concerns about the University participating in 'debt financing'. Broadly speaking, the projects to which the bond proceeds will be applied will be ones in support of the University's mission and the student interest that are also capable of meeting bond interest and principal repayments. A significant part of the bond proceeds is earmarked for the provision of key worker housing, with proposals for Phase 2 of the North West Cambridge development to come forward for Regent House approval in due course. Whilst acknowledging the societal problems to which Dr Watson adverts, the Council suggests that the astute use of external finance, to add incremental value to the academic mission and student interest and to provide a partial solution to the chronic housing crisis in Cambridge, is on balance the right thing to do.

Professor Evans queries the purpose of the Council in seeking to establish a Special Ordinance to govern the use of the bond proceeds. The Report whose recommendations Grace 2 of 10 May 2018 approved was entitled 'external finance for income-generating projects including housing solutions in the non-operational estate'. The Special Ordinance is intended to limit the use of the bond proceeds to such projects and to require a Report if the Council determines that they should be used in a different way in the future. The protection it is intended to provide is for the Regent House, by remaining true to the purpose as set out in the Report, as Professor Anderson confirms. Professor Evans also draws attention to the rules governing charitable status and the use of subsidiaries for trading activities. The Council confirms that if the need for a new trading subsidiary is identified during the discussion of an income-generating project, one will be established.

The Council is submitting a Grace (Grace 1, p. 176) for the approval of the recommendations of this Report.

Universities Superannuation Scheme: USS Trustee update to the Joint Expert Panel Report and member consultation

The USS Trustee has recently provided an update to USS members on its response to both the Joint Expert Panel (JEP) report and the recent member consultation on cost-sharing.

The USS Trustee has confirmed that contribution increases under the cost-sharing rule will go ahead in April 2019, meaning that from 1 April 2019, members’ pension contributions will rise to 8.8% of salary and the 1% employer ‘match’ for members paying Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) will cease.

The USS Trustee has also given notice that it intends to conduct a new valuation of the scheme as at 31 March 2018. In combination with the JEP recommendations, the new valuation could enable a revised schedule of benefits and contributions to come into effect before the second wave of cost-sharing contribution increases in October 2019. However, this would rely, among other things, on the agreement of the Pensions Regulator, whose position on the JEP recommendations is not yet known.

A summary of the update has been provided jointly by the University’s Pensions Working Group and Cambridge UCU and is available at https://www.staff.admin.cam.ac.uk/general-news/important-information-about-uss-pensions. The full statement by the USS Trustee is available at https://www.uss.co.uk/how-uss-is-run/valuation/2017-valuation-updates/concluding-the-2017-valuation.