Video available for all-staff briefing on pensions

A video recording of Vice-Chancellor Robert Van de Noort's all-staff briefing on pensions is now available.

The session, which took place on Friday 19 March, featured Finance Director Andrew Grice and Human Resources Director John Brady. Andrew and John provided an overview on the different pension schemes our University is part of, what membership of these schemes means for our colleagues, how the schemes are managed and what some of the issues and challenges are.

It followed the recent news of potential changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which is offered to all colleagues in Grade 6 roles and above. 

Introducing the session, the Vice-Chancellor said that the topic of pensions is important for all our colleagues. He said different workplaces may offer different pension schemes but with the same aim of helping employees save money while they are working with a view to providing an income in later life, when they want to work less or retire.

Robert also provided updates on several key topics of interest - final preparations for our submission to the Research Excellence Framework (REF), COVID-19 and plans for the summer term (including safety measures currently in place), Diversity & Equality Reviews (the Race Equality Review, which will soon be published, and the Disability and Neurodiversity Review, which is in early stages), and the announcement of two additional closure days to be awarded to all colleagues this year (details to be confirmed soon).

He also spoke about plans to mark the anniversary of the first lockdown, which will be marked as a national Day of Reflection on Tuesday 23 March. Full details of how you can take part are available in this staff portal story. 

The Vice-Chancellor then handed the session over to Andrew Grice and John Brady, who delivered a detailed presentation on the different types of pensions available to University colleagues. You can find a PDF copy for reference via this link (University log-in required).

If you are signed up to Microsoft Stream, you can access the video here.

The session attracted a large volume of questions from colleagues - while best efforts were made to address as many as possible, there just simply wasn't enough time to answer everything and so a follow-up Q&A session will be organised over the coming weeks. Details will be shared as soon as possible.

The next all-staff briefing will take place on Monday 12 April, 14:00-14:50. The theme will be ‘Research on a platter' and will be co-presented by Professor Carol Wagstaff, Head of the School of Chemistry Food & Pharmacy, Matt White, Director of Campus Commerce and Matt Tebbit, Head of Residential Catering and Bars.