All-staff briefing: a review of 2021

A review of 2021 was the focus of the last all-staff briefing of the year hosted by Vice-Chancellor Robert Van de Noort.

Introducing the session, Robert thanked colleagues for their work over the past year. “Thank you for doing your best. Thank you for keeping the University going in these very challenging circumstances. And thank you for giving our students a near-normal term over the last few months”.

He said 2021 has been a challenging year - certainly the most challenging he could remember - but there was a lot to be grateful for. “Yes, the pandemic has cost us a lot of money, but we have stable finances and it was gratifying that in our negotiations with the UCU and Staff Forum under the Phase-1 agreement that we could agree to the pay-rise that was awarded elsewhere".

Robert also talked about our improved positions in the league tables, the 11^th consecutive Green Flag award for our Whiteknights campus, Henley Business School’s continued success in degree apprenticeship and the launch of Cine Valley among some of the successes of 2021.

He also spoke about our ambition to become the greenest university and the work on this which is already spanning across the University’s strategic principles of Excellence, Sustainability, Community and Engaged University.

A video recording of the session can be accessed below:

You can also access the recording on Microsoft Stream.  

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Upcoming talks  

All colleagues will be sent an Outlook Calendar invite ahead of the session. If you have any queries, please contact communications@reading.ac.uk.  

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Previous sessions

All-staff briefings 

• A conversation with University Council (Thursday 2 December)
• Environmental sustainability (Thursday 18 November) 
• Stories of immersive teaching (Thursday 21 October) 
• Update on USS pension reform (Tuesday 19 October) 
• Strategic Foundations Programme update (Wednesday 6 October)  

• ‘2021/22 academic year – what to expect (Wednesday 8 September)  
• Path to our centenary (Wednesday 22 September)  

COP26 talks 

• Climate science, policy and education (Wednesday 27 October) 

• Green curriculum and balancing diversity (Tuesday 2 November) 

• Changing the way we live (Thursday 4 November) 

• Reflections on COP, climate resilience and local actions (Thursday 11 November) 

You can view our all-staff briefings from on Microsoft Streams.