EXCLUSIVE: Uni of Gloucestershire's new Vice Chancellor lays bare her ambitions

Clare Marchant has just taken over as Vice Chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire after heading up UCAS – the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service – in Cheltenham.

Ian Mean, Business West Gloucestershire director and vice chair of GFirstLEP, talks to her about the university’s challenges in an EXCLUSIVE question-and-answer interview. And he doesn’t pull any punches.

IM: In the latest Daily Mail University Guide, Gloucestershire was 114th out of 128 universities. That’s not good enough is it?

CM: “Really disappointing. Our student satisfaction is very variable from course to course and from school to school so we need to be more consistent on student satisfaction across the piece. We need to make sure, for instance, that timetabling changes are effectively communicated to students, making sure assessments and feedback are given to students in a timely way.”

IM: Where would you like to be in the next Daily Mail guide?

CM: ”We should be aiming to gain 10 to twenty places progressively. But I think we have some really good areas in terms of graduate outcomes – the jobs they get at the end of their stay here.”

IM: How are you going to convince more young people to come to the university?

CM: “We need to be clearer on our offer. This is the first time at recent open days we have launched our three promises to potential students and their parents – a careers promise, an accommodation promise and a connections promise. 

“The career promise is if you haven’t got the job you want within 12-18 months of graduating you can still come back to us—it may be a paid internship. We have always done that, but have we made it clear enough to people?

“On accommodation we can guarantee our first years on campus or near campus accommodation. That’s a real advantage for students. The third – the sense of connection-  has probably been the strongest. 

IM: Are you clear what your USP is yet?

CM: “I don’t think with 140 universities and 367 Higher Education providers across the UK there is going to be a USP.

“There will be a differentiator – you might not be the only one. And one of ours is around what I broadly call digital – whether that is data science skills, cyber security skills, computer engineering skills or how you build digital into health and social care and  how you build it into those studying education, the creative arts or sports performance.

“What is coming out very loudly is our careers. We are a teaching-led university and we have good graduate outcomes.”

IM: You wish to transform the university into ‘one truly in sync with the future skills needs of the region’s employers-the skills required by UK PLC and globally.’ How are you going to do that?

CM: “Our numbers on some of these core digital courses are not where I would like them to be. Are we connected enough to the likes of GCHQ, Hub 8 and Cynam? How are we working with them to ensure that the curriculum on any of these courses is in line with what businesses need?

“Are we marketing that strongly enough to students and could we do more in that space? And there are our facilities. We have just been given a £5 million grant to develop a new cyber hub at our Park Campus in Cheltenham.

“I would like to do that in connection with Cheltenham;s cyber  community rather than a stand-alone university hub.

“You have got to connect to place, you have got to market it and you have got to have better facilities.”

IM: Don’t you have to prove you are not a university of last resort?

CM: “We are currently recruiting for a chief marketing officer because there are people who are not getting our message about what our offer is.

“If people don’t know what we stand for, we are not going to be the university of choice. If you can communicate with young people around the age of 12 they are more likely to make decisions to progress beyond 18 – you have to catch them early.”

IM: What do you want from the business community?

CM: “An open door is the first thing and a recognition that we as a university won’t be able to do everything and neither should we.

“We will have an offer for most firms, but it will be an offer that covers their future skills for their workforce. My message is – just engage with us.”

IM: Don’t you need to bolster apprenticeships?

CM: “We do quite a lot on apprenticeships but some of them have low numbers. I want to ensure that our apprenticeships are absolutely aligned to our curriculum”

IM: Financial sustainability is so important, isn’t it? Do you have too many campuses?

CM: “We have increasing numbers of international students – one of my challenges is creating more of an open door for those people.

“In terms of financial stability, I have become used to joining organisations at a financial low point and building them back up.

“We have 84 buildings and six campuses. For the current financial climate, there is no indication from either political party there will be a change in the tuition fee.

“84 buildings is too many for an organisation of our size and it poses an enormous double whammy – the cost to maintain them and justing to keep going because of energy costs. Plus, by consolidation our campuses become more buzzing with people.

“We are looking to consolidate around our campuses – whether or not that is for sale or rent we are exploring every avenue.

“Debenhams in Gloucester is a lot of money, but I think it will be a game changer. We are calling it City Campus at the moment.”

IM: We have three universities in Gloucestershire-how can you work together better?

CM: “I am all for it. We should now be working together on international recruitment to join up, and marketing Gloucestershire as a place for learning.”

IM: What will good look like to you and how long will it take?

CM: “This is a three to five year journey for the university.

“Our graduate outcomes need to be even better – great careers. I would like to think we are a much more connected place – we have a real opportunity with the City Campus working with everyone in the city and also further with Cheltenham on digital and cyber.”