Second jobs

University boards face multiple challenges, while rows over initial teacher training continue

Is it finally time for members of university governing bodies to be paid? This was a question raised more than once at an Advance HE conference yesterday on “evolving governance fit for our futures”. It follows a year in which university governors have had to deal with the pandemic, post-Brexit changes in graduate recruitment, dramatic shifts in digital technology and new obligations for transparency and accountability placed on them by the Office for Students.

Shefaly Yogendra, vice-chair of the board of governors and chair of the audit committee at London Metropolitan University, told the conference that governing bodies of the future would need not only people with specialisms in corporate finance and human resources but also “deep generalists” able to see the bigger picture, with multidisciplinary skills and experience.