Getting to work during the Games

We hope that you found time to complete TFL’s Olympics Travel Survey. Your feedback will be used by London 2012 to create site specific travel guidance that will be distributed to University staff to help make your journey to work easier.

Visit Get Ahead of the Games  for advice on travelling around London during the Games. If you haven’t already done so, do speak to your line manager about arrangements for getting to work or taking up flexible working alternatives during the period of the Games, and don’t forget to check the University site  for news and useful links.

Taking a bike

With public transport busier than usual during the Olympics and Paralympics, you may wish to cycle all or part of your route to work. As a University employee, you can take advantage of Cycle Scheme,  an initiative designed to make owning a bike financially easier, cut congestion and improve health. You benefit from tax and NI breaks while spreading the cost of a brand new bike over the year with deductions taken from your monthly salary. For more information and how to apply visit the Human Resources Wellbeing pages. 

If you are hitting the road, visit the cycling pages on the University website  for cycle route planners, details of free one to one cycle training and tips for ensuring that you reach your destination safely.

Working from home

If you have agreed with your line manager that you will work from home for some of the Games, you will need to check that you are enabled to do so. The University currently supports home working in a number of ways. This is primarily through Outlook web access and Citrix. We are also now able to provide a ‘softphone’ application, which enables you to log into your work phone extension and make and receive calls through your home computer.

If you require IT assistance to work from home during London 2012, please do discuss with your line manager and contact the IT Service Desk with your requirements by the end of May.

Body casting Olympians

Sculptor and Chelsea alumna Louise Giblin has spent the last year working on a unique Olympian venture: body casting five British sporting heroes. The resulting sculptures will raise money for brain injury charity Headfirst and will be exhibited in London and Battle.

Olympian Series I - Kriss Akabusi MBE

Read more about her casts of Kriss Akabusi, Dame Kelly Holmes, Sally Gunnell, Darren Leach and Beth Tweddle on the UAL 2012 blog

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is an assessment process for evaluating the standard of research in universities that receive funding from HEFCE. REF 2014 will be the seventh exercise of its kind since a national research assessment process was initiated in the mid-1980s. As a result of RAE 2008, the University receives over £6m of HEFCE QR (Quality Research) funding each year, which provides the research infrastructure from which we all benefit.

The Research Excellence Framework is a process of expert review, for assessment across all disciplines, governed by principles of equity, equality and transparency. We are obliged to demonstrate to our funders that our process of selecting of staff research for inclusion in the REF is fair and equitable, as it significantly impacts on the University and its research active staff.

Following guidance provided by HEFCE, the University has adopted a Code of Practice that will govern the processes and procedures followed in preparing our submission to REF 2014. All staff involved in the selection of research returned for the REF 2014 will adhere to these guidelines as the Code and its appendices indicate the University’s selection criteria, process and timetable for REF submission. The Code of Practice has been discussed in College Research Committees, was formally approved by the University’s Academic Board on the 26th April and has been submitted to HEFCE.

Strategic planning for the REF is led by the University’s Dean of Research, Professor Oriana Baddeley, with the support of the College Associate Deans of Research and the Director of Research Management & Administration. The central RMA REF team are co-ordinating the planning and preparation of the REF submission and the management of the REF data collection processes. Evaluation and selection of staff research is being led in the colleges by the Associate Deans of Research with the support of the staff experts on the college REF Working Groups.

The outcome of REF 2014 will influence prospects for research partnerships, income generation, student recruitment, curriculum development and knowledge exchange beyond the REF so careful account has to be taken of balancing the size of a submission (in terms of the number of staff selected) with the quality profile that we hope to achieve.

Taking into account the Government’s policy of both research selectivity and research concentration, it is inevitable that the 2014 REF will result in QR funding being skewed towards the higher levels of the quality profile. There will be limited advantage in including work at the lower levels for staff other than early career researchers because the Government has stated that it will not fund research that is below 3* quality. The nature of our submission must therefore reflect this assumption: to maximise the chances of a higher mean grade average, the threshold for entry will be raised by comparison with 2008. In broad terms, this means the University will exclude work likely to be considered ‘unclassified’ or 1* and to consider carefully the volume of work included that is likely to be considered 2*. While all staff will have the opportunity to put themselves forward for consideration and the process of selection will be closely informed by our REF Code of Practice, overall, this will mean less staff will be submitted than in 2008.

The University’s selective strategy for the REF should be understood as necessary for this exercise. However, it does not alter the value that we place on a wide range of research, advanced practice and knowledge exchange activity, all of which we recognise as crucial to the life of the University. This includes a commitment to the longer-term development of research capability by supporting new and emerging researchers in priority areas who will become vital to our research strategy beyond the REF exercise.

Each College will hold a REF Open Day this term as an opportunity to find out more about the University’s REF Code of Practice, as well as our strategy and preparation for submitting to REF 2014. Information on REF 2014, including the University’s REF Code of Practice, a HEFCE REF Guide and UAL Frequently Asked Questions on REF, are available at www.arts.ac.uk/research/ref/.