Heriot Watt University Outcome Agreement 2016-17 anniversary of the granting of our Royal Charter, Heriot-Watt is an established university operating in a UK framework andlooking to

Heriot-Watt University SFC Outcome Agreement 2016-17 March 2016

CONTENTS

Page PRINCIPAL'S STATEMENT 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 OUTCOME AGREEMENT 2016-17 Aim 1: IMPROVE ACCESS FROM THE WIDEST RANGE OF BACKGROUNDS 11 Aim 2: HIGH QUALITY, EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE LEARNING 15 Aim 3: COHERENT PROVISION OF HIGHER EDUCATION 18 Aim 4: DEVELOPED WORKFORCE – SKILLS AND ENTERPRISE 20 Aim 5: INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE RESEARCH BASE 23 Aim 6: UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION 27 Aim 7: GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, EQUALITY & DIVERSITY 31 Appendix 1: SUMMARY OF BASE-LINE DATA, MILESTONES AND TARGETS 35 Appendix 2: HWU GENDER BY SUBJECT COMPARED TO UK SECTOR QUARTILES 38

Heriot-Watt University SFC Outcome Agreement 2016-17

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PRINCIPAL'S STATEMENT

I am pleased to confirm Heriot-Watt University's commitment to this Outcome Agreement between the University and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) on behalf of the Scottish Government. Our Agreement has taken on board a range of views and inputs from the University Court, the University Executive, the Students Union and the academic community. The representative Student Officers have confirmed their agreement with relevant sections. All the stakeholders recognise that this year’s Agreement has been concluded against the new background of reduced SFC funding for next year and increased levels of risk on many of our funding streams. As we celebrate in 2016 the 50th anniversary of the granting of our Royal Charter, Heriot-Watt is an established university operating in a UK framework and looking to its future as an increasingly international university while remaining proud to represent a strong heritage as a Scottish institution of quality and ambition. Operating at three campuses in Scotland – Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Orkney – we remain very clearly aware of the support we receive from public funding in Scotland and strive to sustain and enhance the contributions we make to society and the economy in Scotland, in particular to the overriding priority of economic development and growth. The University continues to deliver its Strategic Plan, which sets out three main objectives as our current priorities. These are the major outcomes which the University contributes to Scottish higher education, well aligned with SFC’s Outcome Agreement agenda: • Research intensification and knowledge exchange: research performance comparable to the upper

quartile of UK universities, through sustained academic recruitment, strategic investments and collaborations, and scaled-up funding strategies, linked to enhanced interactions with business and industry for innovation and wealth creation. These strategies received strong validation and increased impetus from our highly positive results in the Research Excellence Framework 2014.

• Learning, teaching and the student experience: world-class education for modern professions, coupled with commitment to deliver an outstanding student experience, innovation in education, widening access to the Heriot-Watt experience, providing skills, developing talent and enterprise.

• Internationalisation: further acceleration of our already advanced position in all aspects of our

activities – the high proportion of students at our campuses in Scotland from outside the UK; the established presence of our campus in Dubai and the rapidly growing campus in Malaysia; our new “Go Global” international mobility programme to internationalise the student experience across all campuses; scaled-up worldwide educational delivery through distance learning and local delivery partners, including the global reach of our Business School which remains the UK’s largest deliverer of on-line MBAs; international research collaborations and knowledge exchange connections – all developing our exceptional international reach to become a truly global university.

A notable feature of the financial planning underpinning the strategy is the extent of diversification of the University's income streams. Grant funding from the public purse in Scotland via SFC represents only 22% of the University’s total income. Since my arrival as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University in autumn 2015, I have appreciated ever more clearly the distinctive contributions Heriot-Watt University makes to the economy and society, and the real benefits we offer to students, businesses and the many other partners we work with, in Scotland and beyond. As we begin the processes leading to development of a renewed strategy for the next period, I am determined we should seek to increase and enhance our engagement and impact still further. Professor Richard A Williams OBE FREng FTSE Principal and Vice-Chancellor March 2016


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF KEY COMMITMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS

In our Outcome Agreement document 2013/14-16/17, we set out a 3-5 year programme of activities engaging with agreed priority outcomes, including description of the context and rationale of our approach as well as relevant objectives and strategies. The current document, our Outcome Agreement for 2016/17, maintains much of that material in the succeeding sections, framed by the following summary and, at the end of the document, by an updated table of performance measures. This approach reflects continuity of purpose in engaging with the process and in seeking to achieve outcomes to which Heriot-Watt University has made strong positive commitments. AIM 1: IMPROVE ACCESS TO HE FOR PEOPLE FROM THE WIDEST RANGE OF BACKGROUNDS Access from SIMD20/40: In terms of entrants from SIMD20/40, the University has achieved a step-change over the last few years from historic levels of around 200 per year, less than 20% of our undergraduate intake from Scotland, to over 300 in both 2014 and 2015, ahead of our medium-term target of 25% of the intake from Scotland. This advance, across both SIMD20 and SIMD40 and involving most subjects in the University, has been facilitated by additional places awarded by SFC for the purpose, and supported by the introduction of a new Contextual Admissions Policy and by increased University-funded bursaries contributing to enhanced support for the students. In general, the effect has been of increased focus on and encouragement for admissions from highly qualified and able applicants in this group, and not any material diminution of the University's high entry requirements. Our priorities are now: to consolidate this recent progress in terms of maintaining appropriate balances of representation across the full range of our subject portfolio and from the more disadvantaged SIMD20 group; and to ensure that the progression and achievement of the increased volume of students from wider access backgrounds remain consistent with the high quality experience and outcomes of Heriot-Watt students in general. To this end, the University’s Student Transitions and Induction Office is currently leading an SFC Impact for Access Fund research project on the experience of students from Wider Access backgrounds of the support available in their transition to university. Progression from Scottish Colleges: A significant fraction of the University’s Scottish-domiciled intake already comes through Scottish Colleges (c200 in 2015, before considering the new College Associate students), typically with Higher National Certificate or Diploma qualifications. By working with selected Colleges to strengthen articulation pathways, we will continue to increase the number and proportion that can benefit from the fullest possible credit for their HN – of the 200, 125 entered with full advanced standing in 2015 and a further 40 with partial credit (HND into Year 2) - while also continuing to be responsive to individual cases where this may not be academically advisable or is not the student’s choice. In addition, since 2013 additional places funded by SFC have enabled us to start the new stream of College-based “Associate Students” with guaranteed articulation into the University on successful completion of their HNDs, including University-agreed curriculum inputs to partner Colleges. Thus our immediate targets for entrants by articulation include both continuing incremental growth through existing routes and consolidating the step-change following the first Associate Student cohorts moving from partner Colleges into the University from 2015/16 onwards. Together these have increased fully articulating entrant numbers to around 170 in 2015, likely to continue to rise gradually towards 200 per year, whereas the number was nearer 50 only a few years ago. In addition, this is an area where Heriot-Watt is keen to explore further opportunities to increase engagement with a coherent set of partner colleges across our region in support of training and skills of particular relevance to the regional and national economies. This would include in particular Fife College, with which new opportunities are under development, as well as more established and still developing relations with Edinburgh, Forth Valley and Borders Colleges. Gender balance: The University is well aware of some gender imbalance in its student population, currently 55/45 M/F and much more pronounced in some areas. There is of course a chronic and systemic issue of the STEM subjects in general and specifically of the technological subjects that dominate our portfolio. In this regard, Heriot-Watt’s imbalance looks particularly anomalous in Scotland where there is no relevant comparator, but is in fact similar to Loughborough’s position and slightly more favourable than Imperial College’s. The University is contributing to addressing the long-term and systematic issues through a strong commitment to the Athena SWAN Charter process, which recognises and encourages commitment to combating the under-representation and advancing the careers of women in STEM research and academia. Heriot-Watt also contributes by actively promoting STEM opportunities to young women, for example through the Headstart Dragonfly programme, encouraging girls in the early years of secondary school to develop an interest in engineering. Run by Heriot-Watt for the Engineering Development Trust, this is an educational


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and motivational event providing hands-on experience of engineering in a university setting for girls in S2, with typically some 80 participants per year. As regards the admissions process, from the stage of initial application for study in the University onwards, we monitor carefully for any evidence of gender (or other) bias in the admissions, and are assured there is no adverse variation in female representation in any subject from initial application, through offer and acceptance to eventual entry to the University. In summary, gender balance is a topic where recent and ongoing increased awareness and activity should support gradual long-term improvement of the balance. In terms of undergraduate student numbers, we aim to make steady progress year on year from the current 55:45 male : female ratio to overall gender parity, and similarly within the STEM subjects to make progress from the current 65:35 level to at least 60:40. We envisage setting a formal target of this sort in our next Outcome Agreement. We will also seek to improve the gender balance in favour of males in certain subject areas where they are significantly under-represented (eg Psychology and Languages, both ~75% female). Appendix 2 shows the gender balance across the University’s subject areas, for undergraduates, comparing the Heriot-Watt position with other UK universities. This shows Heriot-Watt typically within or around the inter-quartile range of male-female distribution across all our subjects (except for Languages, where the weighting of the Heriot-Watt complement towards females is more marked). Care leavers: As regards support for access by care leavers, the University is able to identify and provide proactive support for care-experienced applicants and students. In recent years, as data collection has improved, we identify typically 20-40 such applicants, declaring various time-periods in care, and typically have 2-4 entrants per year. Our support includes automatic entitlement to an Access Bursary and full-year on-campus accommodation. Our approach is consistent with expectations of the Buttle UK Trust, which provides guidance on best practice. Heriot-Watt is currently taking a lead in the new practitioner’s forum Care Experienced and Carers East Forum (CECEF) designed to bring together educational and other practitioners in the region working with this cohort. This enables sharing of best practice and formulation of new collaborative projects, in particular where there are small numbers of individuals with a wide variety of needs and interests are best met by a range of providers and professionals. AIM 2: HIGH QUALITY, EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE LEARNING The University’s set of Key Performance Indicators for Learning, Teaching and the Student Experience overlaps with the performance measures identified by SFC for this Aim. Our KPIs and latest performance are:

• Undergraduate UCAS Tariff entry scores – HWU in UK Upper Quartile (2013/14) and sustained; • Undergraduate year 1-2 retention/progression – HWU in UK Second Quartile (2013/14 entrants); • National Student Survey – HWU in UK Upper Quartile (2015); • Undergraduate First Destination Employment/Further Study (weighted for graduate-level

employment) – HWU in UK Upper Quartile (2013/14), and sustained. Our targets are to sustain the excellent upper quartile levels of performance, with an aspiration to UK upper decile levels that we have recently achieved in NSS and Graduate-level Employment, while steadily improving performance on retention/progression. We made a marked improvement to 93% progression of the 2012 entrant cohort into 2013/14, but subsequently this has not been sustained. We are redoubling efforts to ensure that we recover to our medium-term target year 1-2 progression rates >93%. This area is benefitting from increased focus and some increased resources to support “student transitions” as our entrant numbers from wider access backgrounds and via Colleges have increased in recent years. We monitor carefully to ensure that wider access entrants and other protected characteristic groups are not disadvantaged relative to the general population and to address any anomalies. The University actively engages with sector best practice in review processes designed to assure the academic standards and academic quality of its educational provision, both for the institution itself and for external organisations such as the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and relevant national and international accrediting authorities. Wherever applicable, all Heriot-Watt University degrees enjoy the highest possible levels of accreditation by the relevant professional bodies. Our review processes and outcomes are the subject of a separate annual report to SFC, including confirmation of confidence in the ability to maintain standards and manage continuing enhancement of learning and teaching in all areas reviewed in 2013/14. During 2014/15, Heriot-Watt was engaged in the main QAA process of Enhancement-led Institutional Review (ELIR). The results, reported mid-2015, confirmed the QAA's confidence in the University's quality and standards, and highlighted a number of exemplary areas of good practice.


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AIM 3: COHERENT PROVISION OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND STEM subjects: Heriot-Watt’s major contribution to coherence of HE provision in Scotland continues to be focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, in particular on education for the top professional levels in technological areas of strong relevance to the economy in Scotland. Over 70% of the University’s SFC-eligible student places (ie places for Scottish and Other-EU excluding rest-of-UK students) are in STEM subjects, among the highest proportions of any Scottish university. Our non-STEM provision is largely in business, economics, social policy, language learning and design, of no less importance or relevance. In terms of numbers, the award of additional SFC-funded places has allowed us to grow SFC-eligible undergraduates in STEM, from less than 2,900 two years ago to around 3,250 in 2015/16. Several specific Skills topics of particular current interest are highlighted in the next section (Aim 4). STEM Teacher Education: From 2016 Heriot-Watt and Stirling universities will collaborate in a new joint programme of integrated teacher education in STEM subjects, having secured additional funded places from SFC/Scottish Government to support this innovative scheme. Students will study for a four-year joint Honours degree of Heriot-Watt and Stirling in STEM subjects and Education (or a five-year undergraduate Masters), shortening the pathway to a General Teaching Council-recognised secondary school teaching qualification by a year and helping meet pressing needs for increased specialised school teachers in particular in Chemistry and Physics. Modern Languages: The University maintains significant provision in this strategically important area, in particular in the critical areas of interpreting and translating. Areas of current development include Gaelic, as highlighted in the next paragraph, and Chinese and British Sign Language as highlighted under Aim 4. In addition to our focus on professional skills in interpreting and translating, language options are available as elective courses or as part of joint degrees with science, engineering and business subjects, typically also involving a year studying abroad. Gaelic: Through our Languages and Inter-cultural Studies department and through the SCHOLAR programme with high schools throughout Scotland, the University is already actively engaged with aspects of the National Plan for Gaelic, with the support of Bord na Gaidhlig and Storlann. We continue to explore opportunities to extend this involvement. Performance Sportspeople: With the selection of the University to host the National Centre for Performance Sport, it is likely that we will increasingly become the university of choice in Scotland for students who wish to combine their study of any subject provided by Heriot-Watt with their training programme as elite sports-men and -women, at national representative level, in the sports supported by the Centre. An early example is the move to Heriot-Watt by most of the student members of the Scottish Women’s Football squad, the transfer of whose performance sports scholarships was facilitated by SFC. The University is vigorously supporting the exciting opportunities arising, for example through increased Sports Scholarships, and we draw this to the attention of SFC in case further support is required. AIM 4: DEVELOPED WORKFORCE – SKILLS AND ENTERPRISE, AND RESPONSIVENESS TO THE NEEDS OF INDUSTRY We refer in Aim 2 above to our KPIs evidencing the sustained excellent performance of Heriot-Watt University graduates in terms of positive initial employment outcomes, and their outstanding performance in in terms of graduate-level employment. A very high proportion of Heriot-Watt graduates are in full-time employment within 6 months of graduating and of these an exceptionally high proportion, four out of five, are in professional-level career employment. Our review of Learning and Teaching strategy, completed in 2013, identified Professionalism as one of four key “graduate attributes” we intend to accentuate - the distinctive mix of Heriot-Watt graduate attributes is seen as Professional, Creative, Specialist, Global. Skills: The University is among the largest providers in Scotland of graduate and postgraduate level skills directly relevant to the Scottish Skills Investment Plans - in Engineering, Energy, Chemical Sciences, ICT and the Digital Economy, Finance, Food and Drink, and an important niche contributor in areas of Life Sciences. We contribute directly through the supply of graduates from programmes continually refreshed and updated with inputs from business and industry, professional and sectoral bodies, and through working with schools and colleges to help sustain and develop the pipeline of educational and training opportunities relevant to future skills needs at many levels. For example, we are active in the Oil and Gas Academy for Skills (OGAS), in partnership with Forth Valley College and the universities and colleges in the northeast of


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Scotland, to increase responsiveness and coherence in addressing education and training for those industries, both the upstream and downstream sectors and across the supply chains. We are aware of the new STEM Academy concept being developed by Edinburgh College with SFC support, and we are involved with Fife Council and Fife College in scoping similar initiatives being developed in the neighbouring region. From the nature of our subject portfolio, the additional funded places awarded by SFC in recent years for access and college articulation, as well as those explicitly linked to skills, have flowed towards growth in areas of high priority skills. We continue to signal to SFC our wish and capacity for expansion in areas of strategic importance to the economy. For example, EngineeringUK representing the country’s major technology businesses has recently updated its authoritative analysis of massive and still growing skills shortages in contrast with rapidly expanding business opportunities. Their report indicates the scale of the skills demand as a requirement either to double the annual number of new Engineering graduates in the UK within a decade, or increase Engineering and other related STEM graduates by 50%, plus a doubling of annual output of relevant Advanced Apprenticeships. Engineering / Energy / Manufacturing / Transport: In particular it is in various sectors of Engineering that Heriot-Watt probably has the most distinct current opportunities. We continue to develop plans – building on successes of the acclaimed Engineers of the Future model, developed with Forth Valley College and Ineos at Grangemouth for much wider inclusion of industrial experience in our engineering education, and for further development of linkages and progression opportunities between technical skills training and the highest levels of graduate engineering education – the Graduate Apprenticeship concept. We are also exploring opportunities to develop an Apprentice Academy for the rail sector in partnership with Forth Valley and Fife Colleges related to our planned International Rail Technology Centre (see Aim 5 below). Scale-up and acceleration of this Apprentice Academy plan, in conjunction with the Colleges, university and industry partners, is a distinctive feature of our proposals in the City Deal of the Edinburgh region. These are significant scoping and consultative exercises prior to developing strategic proposals which we expect to discuss further with SFC and SDS as our plans mature. Advanced Skills – Additional Taught Postgraduate Places: From 2013/14 the University was awarded 70 additional places funded by SFC for MSc programmes relating to Energy, Financial Services, Food & Drink, and Manufacturing. The places are again fully utilised in 2015/16, including sustaining MSc study in Renewable Energy at our Orkney Campus. The availability of these places, which allow the University to provide a fee-waiver bursary to eligible students, has contributed to bolstering recruitment of Scottish students to taught postgraduate study in the targeted areas. Scottish Confucius Institute for Business and Communication: The University is proud to have been selected by the Chinese authorities to host the first Confucius Institute to specialise in business and communication. Opened in mid-2014, the Institute is fostering further development of educational and research links between Scotland and China in the areas of business and management education and translating and interpreting, and also aims to help Scottish companies engage with China and increase the provision in Scotland of Chinese language learning for business purposes. An early example is the University’s new degree programme in International Business and Management and Chinese Language, introduced in 2014/15 in conjunction with our partner in the Confucius Institute, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics. Internationalising the student experience: The single largest factor in the international experience of all students at our Scottish Campuses is education in an environment where 35% of the overall cohort is from outside the UK, the second highest proportion among Scottish universities (after St Andrews), with international students coming from around 130 countries. Various international “outward mobility” opportunities are typically taken up by some 120-140 undergraduates per year, over 5% of the total year cohort, usually spending a year abroad at a partner university. The majority are students of languages or combining a modern language with another specialist subject; smaller numbers in many other subject areas are also involved. Regular destinations include Australia, Canada, China, India and USA, as well as a many exchanges in Europe under European Union schemes. At postgraduate level, Heriot-Watt won against considerable competition the co-ordination of several prestigious EU-funded ERASMUS-MUNDUS Masters programmes, in which highly select international student cohorts circulate among a group of European institutions leading in the relevant field. On a potentially much larger scale, we launched in autumn 2015, with Scottish Government support, our "Go Global" campaign to promote and facilitate mobility between and among the Scottish, Dubai and Malaysia Campuses, including emphasis on options for outward mobility from Scotland. With much of the University’s subject portfolio already offered in Dubai and in coming years in Malaysia as well as in Scotland, we are developing the opportunities for scaled-up international mobility for study and/or work-placement as a much more widespread part of the Heriot-Watt student experience, with obvious attractions and benefits for personal development and graduate employability.


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British Sign Language: The University is currently receiving support from SFC in the form of 12 new funded places per year to build up a full undergraduate degree programme in British Sign Language interpreting, the first and only such programme in Scotland, addressing a notable skills gap. In its fourth year in 2015/16, there are now 50 students on the course. AIM 5: INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE RESEARCH BASE REF2014: The results confirmed major continuing advances in the research performance and competitiveness of the University and increased contributions to this Aim:

• 82% of research activity in Heriot-Watt is assessed as internationally competitive (4* or 3*)

• ranking the University 22nd in the UK and 3rd in Scotland by this measure. This performance was sustained with relatively high Research Intensity (82% of eligible staff were submitted), with positives in virtually all subject areas, and with confirmation of Heriot-Watt’s especially strong profile for Research Impact on the economy and society (45% assessed as 4* world-leading and 94% as 4* or 3* for Impact). Particular successes included the three areas where we formed joint submissions with the University of Edinburgh on the basis of established collaborations, accounting for over half Heriot-Watt’s academic staff included in REF. In terms of Research Power (Quality x Volume), indicative of a real critical mass of the very highest quality research, the joint submissions ranked

• 1st in UK in the General Engineering Unit of Assessment (and 4th in UK among all Engineering UoAs combined)

• 2nd in UK in Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

• 5th in UK in Mathematical Sciences. These results provide a strong validation of the successful delivery of Heriot-Watt’s research strategies in recent years, including vigorous academic recruitment of both established and new research leaders (almost a quarter of staff submitted to REF were classified as Early Career Researchers) and proactive engagement in strategic research collaboration. These successes in REF2014 are a platform for continuation, development and in some areas further acceleration of our Research Intensification strategy. The REF outcomes also give increased impetus to existing and new strategic initiatives in research and to ambitious targets for continuing rapid growth of research income and output. Strategic research and innovation initiatives Sir Charles Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Technology: The project to re-locate the Scottish headquarters of the British Geological Survey to the Heriot-Watt University campus in Edinburgh and to build a major new collaborative research centre is proceeding apace. Construction work was ongoing throughout 2015, on target for completion in early 2016. The University’s recruitment campaign for an initial tranche of 10 new research leadership posts in the Centre was launched at the end of 2014 and is now bearing fruit with initial high calibre appointments. Meanwhile the partnership with the BGS continues to be consolidated. A general measure for the success of the project is the targeted growth of incremental income, from increased synergies as well as increased capacity in the Centre, from £1 million in 2013/14 to some £7 million per year by 2018, mainly from research. Early indicators of progress include the move to Heriot-Watt of a leading geoscience group to establish, with £3m support from Shell, the Shell Centre for Exploration Geoscience, followed by the selection of Heriot-Watt to co-ordinate the Natural Environment Research Council UK Doctoral Training Partnership for Oil and Gas. In partnership with BGS and 25 partners across the EU, US and Canada, Heriot-Watt is leading the major Horizon 2020 programme in marine sciences (ATLAS). The HWU share of this €9.1M project is €1.9M. Robotics: It is estimated that the application of advanced Robotics and Autonomous Systems could generate economic impact of $2-6 trillion per year by 2025 (McKinsey), with significant opportunities for the UK as recognised by BIS identifying RAS as one of the “8 great” innovation opportunities. To seize a share of the opportunities, Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Universities have created The Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, which has been selected by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to provide the new £6m EPSRC UK Centre for Doctoral Training in this area, building on a recent £6m award to the


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universities for capital equipment establishing the national ROBOTARIUM facility. Already some 35 principal investigators across Engineering and Informatics at Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh are engaged with some £35 million funding in projects with some 30 industrial partners. The universities continue to develop plans for accelerated development of the collaborative research and innovation centre to establish Edinburgh as a dominant hub in Robotics. International Rail Technology Centre: The rail research community in the UK together with the industrial sector are currently in discussions with the intention of creating a partnership arrangement to establish a research and innovation centre in new rail technologies, including emphasis on high-speed rail. This will bring together the research expertise of the university participants with the technological capacity of the construction companies, train developers, railway-related component and equipment manufacturers and rail systems developers, ie the rail supply chain, with significant emphasis on high-speed rail. There is the major opportunity, supported by key industry players and by Scottish Enterprise, to establish the main physical research and testing facilities at Heriot-Watt, building on our leading research expertise in relevant areas in Civil Engineering. We are seeking to bring these plans to fruition during 2016. Research Income: We have continued to make steady progress in the last two years after previous rapid growth, with research income in 2014/15 of £28.1m and remain on track toward our medium-term target of £40m by 2017/18. UK and international business and industry (>25%) and the EU (15%) are major sources second to the UK Research Councils (>45%), where we are making appreciable advances in NERC and MRC funding in addition to established strength with EPSRC. Medium/large-scale strategic and often collaborative awards are increasingly important including leadership of four new research training initiatives – EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training in Robotics, in Photonics, and in Mathematics, and the NERC Doctoral Training Partnership for Oil and Gas; and participation in three further EPSRC CDTs (Continuous Manufacturing, Condensed Matter Physics and Embedded Intelligence). In the EPSRC grand challenge funding for research in Quantum Technologies announced in late 2014, Heriot-Watt is a large part in Scotland’s relative success, with Heriot-Watt physicists playing major roles in two of the four UK collaborative hubs, securing some £4 million future research funding. Research Integrity Concordat: The University is cognisant of the UK research funders’ Research Integrity Concordat published in 2012 and we continue to develop our practices and structures, guided by the Research and Knowledge Transfer Board and (Research) Ethics Committee, in accord with the Concordat. Crucible: This is a professional and personal leadership and development programme, spanning all academic disciplines, designed to enable early career academics (and equivalents in research institutes and SMEs) to come together to explore and develop their creative capacity and problem-solving potential. Scottish Crucible is led and managed by HWU with financial support from SFC, Scottish Government and the host HEIs. Since 2009 the alumni network of >150 individuals have created over 30 interdisciplinary / cross-institutional research endeavours, with Scottish Government supporting additional 'Projects for Scotland'. Heriot-Watt has also developed an institutional version of Crucible maintaining the same quality of provision that includes participation from our local strategic research partners, Edinburgh University, British Geological Survey, the Moredun research institute, and the firms Selex and Renishaw. Women in STEM Subjects / Athena-SWAN: The crucial step of securing the Athena-SWAN Bronze Award for the University was achieved in autumn 2013, with the School of Mathematical Sciences and Computing achieving a Bronze Award in October 2015. Work is proceeding to roll out the action plan, including senior strategic leadership by a Deputy Principal and operational management by a dedicated new appointment who started in January 2014, and under the guise of the University-wide “Doing things differently” campaign. AIM 6: UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION The University’s Key Performance Indicator in this area is Research Income from Industry and Commerce, indicative of high level engagement with businesses in collaborative research-based innovation. Relative to academic staff numbers or as a proportion of research income, Heriot-Watt’s level of research funding from UK and, increasingly, international businesses is outstanding among UK universities. As with overall research income, significant recent growth was consolidated in 2013/14 and 2014/15. Clearly, the downturn in the oil and gas sectors constrains HWU's industrial income in the short term.

TARGET 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 by 2017/18 £4.7m £5.8m £6.2m £5.8m £5.8m £10m


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With the advent in November 2015 of a new high-level appointment as the University’s Director of Research and Enterprise Services, and recruitment in progress for a new Deputy Principal for Research and Knowledge Exchange and for the new post of Deputy Principal Enterprise and Business Engagement, we are likely to see in 2016 significant fresh agenda-setting and new impetus relevant to this Aim, to be set out in a future Outcome Agreement. Nevertheless, significant progress was sustained in 2015, including:

• Innovation Centres: the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) is now successfully established and fully operational in offices in Aberdeen, with project management provided by Heriot-Watt; similarly the Textiles Future Forum, is approved and progressing. Heriot-Watt is also a major contributor to the centres in Sensors and Image Processing, and in Industrial Biotechnology in which we host a major funded facility, and we expect to make significant contributions to the centre for the Construction sector.

• Converge Challenge is a national flagship programme in technology entrepreneurship, funded by contributions from SFC and the research-intensive universities and run by Heriot-Watt. Through an annual programme culminating in a high-profile competition, it stimulates and encourages commercialisation of innovative technology from the research base in Scotland. The programme provides training, expert advice and mentoring for the entrepreneurs, show-cases success and facilitates access to commercial funding, thus contributing to accelerating development of high-tech high-growth new businesses in Scotland. The 2015 Challenge attracted a record number of high-quality entrants and planning is already advanced for the 2016 round.

AIM 7: GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT, AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY The University’s Court regularly reviews its effectiveness taking account of relevant best practice including the guidance of the UK Committee of University Chairs (CUC), the UK Corporate Governance Code, and the new Scottish Code of Good Higher Education Governance. The Corporate Governance Statement in the University’s Annual Report and Financial Statement for the year ended 31 July 2015, to be published in January 2016, confirms the activities undertaken throughout 2015 to ensure the University is on track to achieve full compliance with the Scottish Code. Assurance as to the effectiveness of governance, management, internal control and risk management is addressed by an active programme of (externally sourced) internal audit, an annual summary of whose work is also included in the University’s published statutory accounts. The Court and Executive regularly review a systematic set of institutional Key Performance Indicators relating to both academic performance and institutional sustainability. Constantly at 75%-80%, the proportion of the University’s income from non-SFC sources is among the highest in the Scottish sector, and this proportion is expected to continue to increase for the foreseeable future. In response to other issues flagged as of particular current interest to SFC in the context of the current Outcome Agreement: Gender balance: The University Chair of Court is Dame Frances Cairncross, CBE and as at December 2015, the female:male balance in the 24-person membership of the University Court is 13:10 with one vacancy, a further positive change in the representation of women in the Court membership. Carbon Management New Carbon Management Plan: In 2016 the University will launch a new Carbon Management Plan. This section summarises the development of that plan, including establishing an authoritative new base-line for 2014/15 emissions, and committed and planned carbon reduction actions to 2019/20, leading to the target of a significant absolute reduction in carbon emissions, even after growth of the University’s campus footprint. In summary:

Sources Emissions

Scopes

Baseline tCO2e (2014/1

5)

Target tCO2e (2019/

20) Reduction t

CO2e Reduction

% Electricity, Gas, Other Fuels, Waste, Water, Travel All 21,584 18,994 2,590 12.0

Potential for further reductions, dependent on additional resources being available, is also discussed. Emissions Baseline: A new emission baseline for the University, based on 2014/15 data, was established during preparation of in 2015 first annual public sector climate change duties report:


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Source Emissions

Scopes tCO2e

(2014/15) % Grid Electricity 2, 3 10,493.7 48.6 Natural Gas 1 7,110.0 32.9 Other Fuels 1 214.4 1.0 Waste 3 261.3 1.2 Water 3 339.5 1.6 Travel 3 3,165.1 14.7 Total 1, 2, 3 21,584.0 100

University growth and impact on emissions: Significant new developments at the Edinburgh Campus are scheduled for completion during 2015/16 and 2016/17 including The Charles Lyell Centre (Feb 2016) incorporating the Scottish HQ of the British Geological Survey; Oriam, Scotland's Sports Performance Centre (autumn 2016); and new halls of residence including 450 bedrooms (opening for 2016/17). The increase in the University estate associated with these and smaller developments has been modelled to increase the University’s greenhouse gas emissions from the use of electricity and gas by approximately 4.5%. This will occur despite the greatly improved energy performance of the new developments when compared with the existing estate. The University’s continuing growth therefore presents a challenge to the attainment of absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon Management Plan development: The University has developed a register of energy reduction opportunities which will form the basis of arrangements to identify, prioritise, plan and monitor projects underpinning the new Carbon Management Plan. Projects have been identified via internal expertise and external audits, including a high-level external audit of the Edinburgh Campus completed in 2015 in preparedness for potential participation in the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS). Technologies and initiatives featuring within the Carbon Management Plan will include:

• Retrofit of LED lighting • Improvements to building fabric • Further implementation of variable speed drives (VSDs) • Boiler replacement and improved services for the provision of hot water • Sustainability engagement / energy awareness campaign • Fuller implementation of automatic meter reading and analysis of data using monitoring and

targeting software In addition to the projects described above (and a variety of smaller carbon reduction projects), the University is developing feasibilities surrounding renewable electricity generation and technologies that have the potential to make a significant contribution to reducing emissions at the Edinburgh Campus. The University is establishing an Energy Efficiency Recycling Fund with Salix Finance that will have a total value of £520,000. Carbon reduction target: The University has modelled reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that should result from projects for which finance is likely to be available under the Salix Energy Efficiency Recycling Fund, via Long Term Maintenance and via the University’s Capital Programme. The model includes:

• Projected increases in energy consumption associated with the new developments at the Edinburgh Campus.

• Projected annual values for future emission factors associated with grid electricity, to reflect decarbonisation of electricity generation at a national level.

This modelling indicates that an appropriate absolute emission reduction target for the University, in relation to the emission footprint described in the University’s public sector climate change duties report, would be for a 12% reduction between the 2014/15 baseline and 2019/20, the final year of the plan. Stretch targets: The emission reduction targets described here are based on the implementation of projects for which funding is or is likely to be in place during the period of the new Carbon Management Plan. High level feasibilities have however highlighted the potential for further significant reductions in emissions that might be achieved with further investment, including a recent feasibility for a gas fired CHP district heat network at the Edinburgh Campus which indicated potential for a reduction in emissions of 14.8% for an investment of approximately £10.4M.


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Finalisation of the Carbon Management Plan: The Estates Services function is currently consulting with the University’s Energy Academy to ensure that the finalised Carbon Management Plan draws as fully as possible on the substantial energy and climate change expertise available within the University’s Schools, in relation to both climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. (Contributions to the development of a low carbon economy through a number of major programmes of research and innovation are referred to in the relevant section, 6.7). When finalising the Plan the University expects to refer to green scorecard metrics under development by the Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE/SAUDE) to set normalised performance targets alongside the absolute emission reduction targets described here. The Plan will then be the subject of a formal annual review process co-ordinated with future mandatory annual public sector climate change duties reports.


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Heriot-Watt University

SFC Outcome Agreement 2016-17

Aim 1: IMPROVE ACCESS FROM THE WIDEST RANGE OF BACKGROUNDS

- More even patterns of participation by different groups of learners, including those from areas of deprivation, from protected characteristic groups and care backgrounds.

- An increase in the number of students articulating with advanced standing from HNC/HND to degree level study.

- More institutions applying best practice in contextualised admissions

1.1 General: Heriot-Watt is a university which is committed to rigorous selection of students on competitive merit, but is also by history and ethos averse to social exclusivity and every other type of discrimination. For a university of our type, and with a student recruitment catchment for Scottish students mainly in the southeast of the country, we believe we have already made good progress towards a student profile that is relatively inclusive in social terms, while also working to overcome the historic challenge of gender imbalances in the technological subjects that dominate our portfolio. Both specifically in our Scottish student population and in our overall student body, including the significant number of international students whom we attract, we demonstrate exceptional ethnic and cultural diversity which we value as a feature of the student learning and living environment. Nevertheless, we wish to do more to ensure our inclusiveness and in particular to increase the diversity of participation in Scotland. We also wish to take opportunities to increase effectiveness and efficiency in student progression and achievement, so we welcome the renewed emphasis on and support for these agenda, and new opportunities to engage constructively with SFC on these topics. Within the context of a selective university, and one with a notably diverse international student body, Heriot-Watt has significantly enhanced its focus on increasing the number and proportion of Scottish students from backgrounds under-represented in higher education. We have adopted the general measure of undergraduate entrants from the 20% and 40% most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Scotland (SMID20/40), while also paying attention to other indicators, particularly schools in our region with relatively low rates of progression to university, and the recognised protected characteristic groups. In addition, as a predominantly technological university, we continue to address the long-term challenge of increasing the participation of female students in our subject areas.

1.2 More even patterns of participation by different groups of learners, including those from areas of deprivation Heriot-Watt University welcomed the award by SFC of additional places (83 per year) for widening access, which allowed us to accelerate our ambitions for representation from these groups. In recent years, the University has achieved a step-change in entrants from SIMD20/40 from historic levels of around 200 per year, less than 20% of our undergraduate intake from Scotland, to over 300 in both 2014 and 2015, already ahead of our medium-term target of 25% of our intake from Scotland. This advance, across both SIMD20 and SIMD40 and involving most subjects in the University, has been facilitated by additional places awarded by SFC for the purpose, and supported by the introduction of a new Contextual Admissions Policy and by increased University-funded bursaries contributing to enhanced support for the students. In general, the effect has been of increased focus on and encouragement for admissions from highly qualified and able applicants in this group, and not any material diminution of the University's high entry requirements. Our priorities are now: to consolidate this recent progress in terms of maintaining appropriate balances of representation across the full range of our subject portfolio and from the more disadvantaged SIMD20 group; and to ensure that the progress and achievement of the increased volume of students from wider access backgrounds remain consistent with the high quality experience and outcomes of Heriot-Watt students in general. To this end, the University’s Student Transitions and Induction Office is currently leading an SFC Impact for Access Fund research project on the experience of students from Wider Access backgrounds of the support available in their transition to university.


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Our relatively favourable platform for further growth of Scottish wider access reflects our active engagement in a wide range of relevant outreach initiatives over many years (in particular LEAPS, SWAP and contributions from our SCHOLAR programme), with good quality applicant numbers from SIMD20/40 being sustained within the very strong overall growth in applications to Heriot-Watt in recent years. In the short-term, increasing the SIMD20/40 intake is for us an admissions rather than a recruitment issue, with the main mechanism to facilitate increased intakes being a new Contextual Admission policy. This allows selectors to give appropriate weight to other indications of achievement, merit and motivation to supplement normal exam grade entry criteria for applicants in certain circumstances, including SIMD20/40 background and Scottish secondary schools significantly under-represented in entrants to higher education. The implementation of this policy is being very carefully regulated and monitored, and its outcomes will be reviewed in conjunction with monitoring the progression and achievement of the students. For the medium- and longer-term, we are actively considering further increased impetus and new initiatives in outreach to secondary schools in areas of deprivation. In doing so, we expect to continue to work in collaboration with other universities and relevant partners in the SHEP framework, and in particular LEAPS, in addressing the collective challenge of increasing the pool of well-qualified applicants. We have put increased funding in place for a new scheme of Access Bursaries for Scottish students, launched in 2013.

1.3 An increase in the number of students articulating with advanced standing from HNC/HND to degree level study. Heriot-Watt is attractive to and provides progression opportunities for students from Colleges across Scotland, with significant concentrations of activity with Edinburgh College, with Forth Valley College in Engineering, with Glasgow Clyde College in Textiles, and in the partnership with Borders College at the shared campus in Galashiels. We have indicated to SFC emerging opportunities for significant further developments in Engineering education and training with close employer engagement, in particular relating to the Energy sector, in partnership with Forth Valley College, involving also Edinburgh College and building collaboration with the new Fife College. These opportunities, discussed further under Aim 4, are not yet incorporated in specific additional targets. We welcomed our award of additional places (60 per year) to develop and increase articulated programmes with Scottish Colleges, ie programmes in which students study an agreed curriculum in the College partner for one of two years for an HNC or HND qualification, as "associate" students of the University with guaranteed progression, subject to appropriate performance, to an advanced level in the University (typically HND to third level at Heriot-Watt). For many years Heriot-Watt has offered progression opportunities to students from Colleges, firstly on an ad hoc basis and latterly on an increasingly co-ordinated basis in particular working more closely with local and regional College partners in the Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Articulation Hub (ELRAH, which also includes Borders and Forth Valley and co-operates with Fife Colleges). We intend to use the additional places for Articulation to make a step-change in the scale of these activities in conjunction with strengthening and deepening relationships with our key College partners, building further potential for future developments. In addition, this is an area where Heriot-Watt is keen to explore further opportunities to increase engagement with a coherent set of partner colleges across our region in support of training and skills of particular relevance to the regional and national economies. This would include in particular Fife College, with which new opportunities are under development, as well as more established and still developing relations with Edinburgh, Forth Valley and Borders Colleges. With the additions of Construction-related programmes and collaboration with Fife and West Lothian Colleges – which we would hope to be able to develop in future – these represent the major subject areas and partners for our articulation activities, though we do not exclude arrangements with other colleges and in other subjects, particularly where we have distinctive provision relevant to College subjects eg Food and Drink. In terms of numbers, we previously counted our entrants by articulation including both "full articulation" (HNC to level 2, HND to level 3) and "part articulation" (HND to level 2). On this basis, we have averaged around 100 articulating entrants per year from Scottish Colleges over the last six years, including meeting and exceeding growing targets agreed with ELRAH partners. While we will continue to support "part" articulation, in response to student choice and in individual cases where it is educationally justified, we note that SFC recognises only "full" articulation. We are working to reduce


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and remove any unnecessary obstacles to maximum credit for prior studies, notably our work with partners in integrating University Mathematics for Engineering into the Colleges' curricula. We continue to develop plans – building on successes of the acclaimed Engineers of the Future model, developed with Forth Valley College and Ineos at Grangemouth for much wider inclusion of industrial experience in our engineering education, and for further development of linkages and progression opportunities between technical skills training and the highest levels of graduate engineering education – the Graduate Apprenticeship concept. We are also exploring opportunities to develop an Apprentice Academy for the rail sector in partnership with Forth Valley and Fife Colleges related to our planned International Rail Technology Centre (see Aim 5 below). Scale-up and acceleration of this Apprentice Academy plan, in conjunction with the Colleges, university and industry partners, is a distinctive feature of our proposals in the City Deal of the Edinburgh region. These are significant scoping and consultative exercises prior to developing strategic proposals which we expect to discuss further with SFC and SDS as our plans mature.

1.4 Contextual admissions, protected characteristic groups and care leavers

In 2013 the University implemented a new Contextual Admissions Policy which allows the high grades generally offered to applicants to secure entry to be marginally abated for applicants who are high-achieving relative to disadvantaged educational and social backgrounds. Following on from the refresh of the University's overall Strategic Plan in 2012, a detailed update of the Learning and Teaching Strategy was published in autumn 2013 including consideration of the issues of diversity in the student population. This proceeded in conjunction with the work of the University's Equality and Diversity Group (EDAG) on the development of equality outcomes, published in April 2013, that meet our legal requirements and are locally relevant. These reviews naturally look in the first instance at the overall cohorts in which our students experience their learning, including UK and international students as well as the Scotland-domiciled entrants on which SFC focuses. Nevertheless, Scottish students are the single largest group in our undergraduate population, just over 50% of the total, so it is helpful to be clear about key demographics of this population. In addition to the deprivation indicators discussed above, SFC highlights gender, age, ethnicity, and declared disability. Our EDAG also considers religion and sexual orientation, though significant data are not yet available for these. We also recognise students who have been looked after (in care) as children as a special needs group. As regards the fraction of undergraduate students who declare a disability (8%), Heriot-Watt matches the Scottish university average. As regards the fraction of Scottish-domiciled undergraduate entrants classified as Black and Minority Ethnic (BME), Heriot-Watt's 9% is consistently high in Scottish higher education, almost double the sector average, and this very positive diversity is further amplified in students' experience and in the culture of the University by our international student presence, again well above the sector average. Our challenges are in the gender balance and age profile of our student body. The fraction of our Scottish undergraduate entrants who are female is consistently among the lowest of all Scottish institutions (43% in 2013/14). The fraction of our Scottish undergraduate entrants who are aged 21 or over has also been consistently among the lowest in Scotland in recent years. We expect that the anomalously low age profile of our Scottish students over the last few years will be addressed relatively quickly through our commitments to increased intakes of more mature students articulating from Scottish Colleges. The gender imbalance is, however, a chronic issue associated with the particular weight of technological subjects in our portfolio. In this regard, Heriot-Watt’s imbalance looks particularly anomalous in Scotland where there is no relevant comparator, but is in fact similar to Loughborough’s position and slightly more favourable than Imperial College’s. One important assurance we can provide at this stage is, after careful checking, the absence of gender bias at any point in our admissions process: the 40:60 ratio is constant at each stage from initial applications through offers made by the University, acceptances by applicants and ultimately the intake, and each of our academic Schools exhibits a characteristic balance that is also maintained throughout the admissions cycle. In our review we would expect to identify and consider any of our subject areas where the gender balance is particularly skewed and where applicable to address this gradually, for example through targeted activities in student recruitment. The University is contributing to addressing the long-term and systematic issues through a strong commitment to the Athena SWAN Charter process, which recognises and encourages commitment to combating the under-representation and advancing the careers of women in STEMM research and academia. Heriot-Watt also contributes by actively promoting STEM opportunities to young women, for example through the Headstart Dragonfly programme, encouraging girls in the early years of secondary school to develop an interest in engineering. Run by Heriot-Watt


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for the Engineering Development Trust, this is an educational and motivational event providing hands-on experience of engineering in a university setting for girls in S2, with typically some 80 participants per year. As regards the admissions process, from the stage of initial application for study in the University onwards, we monitor carefully for any evidence of gender (or other) bias in the admissions, and are assured there is no adverse variation in female representation in any subject from initial application, through offer and acceptance to eventual entry to the University. In summary, gender balance is a topic where recent and ongoing increased awareness and activity should support gradual long-term improvement of the balance. In terms of undergraduate student numbers, we aim to make steady progress year on year from the current 55:45 male : female ratio to overall gender parity, and similarly within the STEM subjects to make steady progress from the current 66:34 ratio to at least 60:40 within five years. We will also seek to improve the gender balance in favour of males in certain subject areas where they are significantly under-represented (eg Psychology and Languages, both ~75% female). Appendix 2 shows the gender balance across the University’s subject areas, for undergraduates, comparing the Heriot-Watt position with other UK universities. This shows Heriot-Watt typically within or around the inter-quartile range of male-female distribution across all our subjects (except for Languages, where the weighting of the Heriot-Watt complement towards females is more marked). As regards support for access by care leavers, the University is able to identify and provide proactive support for care-experienced applicants and students. In recent years, as data collection has improved, we identify typically 20-40 such applicants, declaring various time-periods in care, and typically have 2-4 entrants per year. Our support includes automatic entitlement to an Access Bursary and full-year on-campus accommodation. Our approach is consistent with expectations of the Buttle UK Trust, which provides guidance on best practice. 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 < 1yr 5 3 1 13 15 12 1-3yr 3 5 10 10 7 13 ≥ 3yrs 22 10 14 24 18 18 Total Apps 30 18 25 47 40 43 Entrants 4 8 3 5 5 3 Heriot-Watt is currently taking a lead in the new practitioner’s forum Care Experienced and Carers East Forum (CECEF) designed to bring together educational and other practitioners in the region working with this cohort. This enables sharing of best practice and formulation of new collaborative projects, in particular where there are small numbers of individuals with a wide variety of needs and interests are best met by a range of providers and professionals.


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Aim 2: HIGH QUALITY, EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE LEARNING

- An improvement in the retention and success rates of learners. - Greater flexibility in entry and exit points, where appropriate, to reduce potential inefficiencies in the

learner journey where this is of benefit to the learner. - Quality of learning provision and learner outcomes assured and enhanced. 2.1 General: The University’s set of Key Performance Indicators for Learning, Teaching and the Student

Experience overlaps with the performance measures identified by SFC for this aim. Our KPIs and latest performance are: • Undergraduate UCAS Tariff entry scores – HWU in UK Upper Quartile (2013/14), and rising; • Undergraduate year 1-2 retention/progression – HWU in UK Second Quartile (2013/14 entrants); • National Student Survey – HWU in UK Upper Quartile (2015); • Undergraduate First Destination Employment/Further Study (weighted for graduate-level

employment) – HWU in UK Upper Quartile (2013/14), and sustained.

Our targets are to sustain the excellent upper quartile levels of performance, with an aspiration to UK upper decile levels that we have recently achieved in NSS and Graduate-level Employment, while steadily improving performance on retention/progression.

2.2 Quality of learning provision and learner outcomes: The University actively engages with sector

best practice in review processes designed to assure the academic standards and academic quality of its educational provision, both for the institution itself and for external organisations such as the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and relevant national and international accrediting authorities. Wherever applicable, all Heriot-Watt University degrees enjoy the highest possible levels of accreditation by the relevant professional bodies. Our review processes and outcomes are the subject of a separate annual report to SFC, including confirmation of confidence in the ability to maintain standards and manage continuing enhancement of learning and teaching in all areas reviewed in 2013/14. During 2014/15, Heriot-Watt was engaged in the main QAA process of Enhancement-led Institutional Review (ELIR). The results, reported mid-2015, confirmed the QAA's confidence in the University's quality and standards, and highlighted a number of exemplary areas of good practice.

2.3 Improvement in the retention and success rates of learners: The University tracks retention and

progression of undergraduate entrants as one of its key performance indicators for learning and teaching. Performance is benchmarked against UK and Scottish comparators at institutional and subject levels and target levels are set annually for the immediate and medium-term future. Our targets are to sustain the excellent upper quartile levels of performance, with an aspiration to UK upper decile levels that we have recently achieved in NSS and Graduate-level Employment, while steadily improving performance on retention/progression. We made a marked improvement to 93% progression of the 2012 entrant cohort into 2013/14, but subsequently this has not been sustained. We are redoubling efforts to ensure that we recover to our medium-term target year 1-2 progression rates >93%. This area is benefitting from increased focus and some increased resources to support “student transitions” as our entrant numbers from wider access backgrounds and via Colleges have increased in recent years. We monitor carefully to ensure that wider access entrants and other protected characteristic groups are not disadvantaged relative to the general population. Should there be any major adverse variation in retention for any demographic sub-group, we would expect to identify and address this as a matter of serious concern (as we already do across our academic disciplines).

It is important to be clear what the base-line information we have reviewed in this regard actually indicates – these are the 5-year trend levels 2005/6-2009/10 of retention/progression of Scottish entrants from year of entry to the subsequent year:

Heriot-Watt Scotland All entrants 90.2% 87.6% Females 91.9% 89.1% Males 88.9% 85.4% From SIMD20 88.3% 83.0% Aged 21 and above 85.0% 84.2% BME 92.9% 88.9% Declared disability 91.3% 85.9%


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The least satisfactory area at Heriot-Watt, only narrowly better than the Scottish average, has evidently been entrants aged 21 and above. We think the main contributory factor here was previous attempts to increase admissions of mature students from Colleges, including direct entry to later years of programmes where proper arrangements to articulate the curriculum had not been established. Lessons have been learnt from this experience. As shown in the table above, our retention of entrants from the 20% most deprived neighbourhoods in Scotland (SIMD20) was marginally lower than our average, though rather higher than the Scottish average retention from this group. Nevertheless, we recognise from our own and others' experience the increased risk of drop-out as the number of students from deprived backgrounds and non-standard entry routes increases. From 2013 we have devoted significantly increased resources, both new central support and closer co-ordination with activities in our academic Schools, to enhance student support. With the exception of some targeted pre-entry induction activities, our approach to support for the various groups is based on "mainstreaming", the fullest integration with the general well-developed framework for academic, pastoral and financial support, including delivery of services by the University and the Students Union. Through the Students Union as well as the University, we have a have a range of services for academic and pastoral counselling and support which have recently been supplemented by two new posts in recognition of increased demands likely to arise with wider access and increased entrants at advanced levels from Colleges. We are currently developing our ability to track student progress in relation to access profile and protected characteristic groups, with a view to enhancing early support for students “at risk”, and hope to see some early benefits from all these increased activities over the current academic year. This area has benefited from increased focus and some increased resources to support “student transitions” as our entrant numbers from wider access backgrounds and via Colleges have increased in recent years. We monitor carefully to ensure that wider access entrants and other protected characteristic groups are sharing in the general improvement in retention/progression.

2.4 Completion and success: As discussed above, the University monitors very closely progression from

the year of entry to the next year, on the understanding that this is the period of by far the greatest risk of discontinuation, and we set a significant target for this progression rate (93%). We do not currently have systematic performance measures for raw progression rates through subsequent years, as discontinuation from these years is not currently identified as a significant issue. Instead, we track measures of successful student completion and achievement, including the fraction of degrees awarded with "good Honours" (firsts and 2.1s, expected to be consistent with the upper quartile of UK universities), where relevant the fraction proceeding to "enhanced first degrees" in professional subjects (eg MEng), and in particular positive "first destination" employment (an escalating series of measures including the fraction in employment or further study, the fraction in specifically "graduate level" employment, and increasingly salary levels – all targeting performance in the upper decile of UK universities, building on our sustained upper quartile performance). Performance is benchmarked against other high-performing UK and Scottish comparators at institutional and subject levels, and any significant adverse variation investigated and addressed as appropriate. We have not hitherto tracked these outcomes separately for the various components of the student population, but are now beginning to establish the processes required to do so systematically, which will be developed over the next few years. Should any major adverse variation emerge for any demographic sub-group, we would expect to identify and address this as a matter of concern.

2.5 Greater flexibility in entry and exit points: The University's entry routes are designed to be flexible

and responsive first and foremost to the needs and choices of Scottish students and the curriculum and qualifications offered in Scottish schools and colleges. The main entry point continues to be first year/level in the University (SCQF level 7) on the basis of Scottish Higher qualifications (SCQF level 6). For applicants taking Scottish Advanced Highers or Scottish Baccalaureate (SCQF level 7), we advertise and make offers for direct entry to second year/level (SCQF level 8), and this route is chosen by some students. However, our experience to date is that even among applicants who would be well qualified for second level entry – high performing highly motivated students – the substantial majority choose to enter the University at first level. We have discussed above our commitments to develop and extend efficient and effective articulation pathways through HNC (SCQF level 7) to level 2 at Heriot-Watt and HND qualifications (SCQF level 8) direct to level 3 at Heriot-Watt (SCQF level 9), while still recognising that options short of full articulation may be valid individual choices. The University engages in many ways with secondary schools, local authority education departments, colleges, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and directly with Scottish Government to help


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ensure effective and efficient interfaces between our offering and the needs of Scottish learners who may access the University. The development of the "Curriculum for Excellence", in particular as it impacts on the senior years at secondary school, is a major area of current mutual interest. The Heriot-Watt SCHOLAR programme has become an important feature of the landscape at the interfaces of the educational sectors in Scotland, and we believe offers still further potential. SCHOLAR provides on-line learning materials and learning support for students and teachers in a wide range of subjects at Higher and Advanced Higher, and is now well-established in use in the great majority of Scottish secondary schools. Rigorous external research and evaluation has demonstrated significant educational enhancements and indicates valuable efficiencies from the use of SCHOLAR, confirming extensive feedback from users. The SCHOLAR portfolio has now been fully updated for the Curriculum for Excellence with the support of a major grant (£1.25m) from Education Scotland. We are interested to consider more closely with relevant parties how the SCHOLAR potential could be still further developed in response to emerging agenda – for example, in support of the changing school curriculum, maintaining or extending the availability of H, AH and Baccalaureate qualifications in schools, and so sustaining access and progression opportunities, all on a highly efficient basis.


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Aim 3: COHERENT PROVISION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

- Universities are responsive to current and future skill requirements of employers. - More targeted recruitment to courses of national and regional economic significance. - Nationally coherent and regionally aligned nursing provision. - Implementation of the National Gaelic Language Plan 3.1 General: Heriot-Watt’s major contribution to coherence of HE provision in Scotland is and will continue

to be focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, in particular on education for the top professional levels in technological areas of strong relevance to the economy in Scotland. Over 70% of the University’s SFC-eligible student places (ie places for Scottish and Other-EU excluding rest-of-UK students) are in STEM subjects, among the highest proportions, if not the highest, of any Scottish university. Our non-STEM provision is largely in business, economics, social policy, language learning and design, and is of no less importance or relevance. In terms of numbers, the award of additional SFC-funded places is allowing us to continue to grow SFC-eligible undergraduates in STEM, from less than 2,900 two years ago to around 3,250 in 2015/16. Several specific Skills topics of particular current interest are highlighted in the next section (Aim 4).

Our highly distinctive or unique subjects, such as Brewing and Distilling, Petroleum Engineering and Actuarial Mathematics, are not confined to STEM but also include for example Interpreting and Translating in Modern Languages, Architectural Engineering and indeed Textiles and Fashion. Our programmes are orientated on the highest levels of professional accreditation, notably 5-year undergraduate programmes for Master of Engineering degrees leading to Chartered Engineer status in each of the major engineering institutions. Teaching provision is closely linked with highly rated research, which is particularly important for the health of the disciplines in STEM areas, and both teaching and research attract significant business and industrial linkages. These are features of a genuine "critical mass" that we believe is vital to sustaining high quality provision in our high cost subjects. Focus on these subjects is an important part of the mission of Heriot-Watt and we seek opportunities to reinforce and accentuate these strengths.

3.2 Provision of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) places

We welcome the creation by SFC of additional funded places in STEM and the award of 50 of these per year (over the four years 2012/13 to 2015/16) to Heriot-Watt, in conjunction with the award of a further 25 additional places at undergraduate level and 70 at postgraduate level for enhanced Skills development in STEM areas. The University's increases in STEM student numbers continue to run ahead of and exceed these welcome but still limited additional allocations by SFC. The allocations of extra places for Widening Access and Articulation are also weighted toward STEM, reflecting both our appetite and our applicant demand for growth in these areas.

Full-time Undergraduate Students Eligible for SFC funding

2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 Entrants Total Entrants Total Entrants Total Entrants Total

Undergraduate STEM 897 2,885 1,059 3,125 857 3,214 886 3,372 incl Textiles 163 490 154 468 140 468 162 481

Non-STEM 318 1,160 411 1,208 287 1,262 400 1,328

Total 1,215 4,045 1,470 4,333 1,144 4,476 1,286 4,700

% STEM 71% 72% 72% 72% 3.3 STEM Teacher Education: From 2016 Heriot-Watt and Stirling universities will collaborate in a new

joint programme of integrated teacher education in STEM subjects, having secured additional funded places from SFC/Scottish Government to support this innovative scheme. Students will study for a four-year joint Honours degree of Heriot-Watt and Stirling in STEM subjects and Education (or a five-year undergraduate Masters), shortening the pathway to a General Teaching Council-recognised secondary school teaching qualification by a year and helping meet pressing needs for increased specialised school teachers in particular in Chemistry and Physics.


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3.4 Built Environment: Against the background of a protracted cycle of relatively weak student demand in the UK in many areas relating to Construction, Property and the Built Environment, and thus of potential vulnerability in these subjects in some universities, we confirm Heriot-Watt’s commitment to maintain and develop this subject area which is of long-term societal, economic and environmental importance. In 2013 the University’s School of the Built Environment secured designation by the Royal Academy of Engineering as one of four UK Centres of Excellence in Sustainable Building Design, and on this platform we are developing plans to consolidate our position as the major Scottish higher education centre for the full spectrum of Built Environment professions including our only notable current gap which is Architecture.

3.5 Modern Languages: The University maintains significant provision in this strategically important area,

in particular in the niche areas of interpreting and translating. Areas of current development include Gaelic, as highlighted the next paragraph, and Chinese and British Sign Language as highlighted under Aim 4. In addition to our focus on professional skills in interpreting and translating, language options are available as elective courses or as part of joint degrees with science, engineering and business subjects, typically also involving a year studying abroad.

3.6 Gaelic: During 2013 our Languages and Inter-Cultural Studies department (LINCS) designed,

developed and delivered specialist training for the Scottish Government Gaelic Unit on Gaelic-English Interpreting, with the objective of increasing the professionalism and raising the standards of Gaelic-English interpreting. With learning materials now in place, there will be increased possibilities to re-run, develop and extend this training, and to explore the inclusion of Gaelic as a main or elective language in our renowned Translation and Interpreting programmes at postgraduate and/or undergraduate level, subject to demand and resources. Through the SCHOLAR programme (see 2.5 above), the University already provides support for Scottish Higher qualifications in Gaelic language, which has been updated for the Curriculum for Excellence. In addition, the SCHOLAR Unit is currently developing support for Gaelic-medium teaching and learning in Science in early secondary school, with funding from Bord na Gaidhlig and Storlann. There are intriguing possibilities for the translation of the SCHOLAR materials into Gaelic to facilitate delivery of the full range of Highers/Advanced Highers now supported by SCHOLAR through the medium of Gaelic.

3.7 Performance Sportspeople: With the selection of the University to host the National Centre for

Performance Sport, it is likely that we will increasingly become the university of choice in Scotland for students who wish to combine their study of any subject provided by Heriot-Watt with their training programme as elite sports-men and -women, at national representative level, in the sports supported by the Centre. An early example is the recent move to Heriot-Watt by most of the student members of the Scottish Women’s Football squad, the transfer of whose performance sports scholarships was facilitated by SFC. The University is vigorously supporting the exciting opportunities arising, for example through increased Sports Scholarships, and we draw this to the attention of SFC in case further support is required.


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Aim 4: DEVELOPED WORKFORCE – SKILLS, ENTERPRISE AND RESPONSIVENESS TO THE NEEDS OF INDUSTRY

- An increase in the proportion of graduate in work of further study six months after graduating, and of those in work, a reduction in the proportion in non-graduate (as opposed to graduate) occupations, where these proportions appear to be particularly high.

- Graduate are well prepared for work and can utilise their skills effectively in the increasingly international labour market.

4.1 General: Heriot-Watt University has an outstanding track record of producing highly employable

graduates whose professional and entrepreneurial skills contribute significantly to economic development and wealth creation. The University regularly ranks in the top 20 in the UK for the proportion of its graduates in employment within six months of graduation, and consistently in the top 10 for the proportion in "graduate level" jobs. The predominance of technological and business subjects in Heriot-Watt orientates our students and graduates strongly and positively on professional roles and entrepreneurial activity in business and industry. A study undertaken for the University by BiGGAR Economics in 2012 provides some estimates of the significant earnings premium for Heriot-Watt graduates compared with the average, and of the contribution made by Heriot-Watt graduates to economic productivity in Scotland. The University’s responsiveness to and anticipation of skills needs is embedded throughout our academic processes. Wherever applicable, our degree programmes are accredited to the highest level by the relevant professional bodies, and many of staff are active in those professional bodies, regionally, nationally and internationally. Most of our subject areas also benefit from a formally constituted industrial advisory group, in which leading current professionals, practitioners and employers have an input to the development of the curriculum. Through visiting and honorary appointments, practitioners also engage directly with teaching in many subjects. We refer in Aim 2 above to our KPIs evidencing the sustained excellent performance of Heriot-Watt University graduates in terms of positive initial employment outcomes, and their outstanding performance in in terms of graduate-level employment. A very high proportion of Heriot-Watt graduates are in full-time employment within 6 months of graduating and of these an exceptionally high proportion, four out of five, are in professional-level career employment. Our review of Learning and Teaching strategy, completed in 2013, identified Professionalism as one of four key “graduate attributes” we intend to accentuate - the distinctive mix of Heriot-Watt graduate attributes is seen as Professional, Creative, Specialist, Global.

4.2 Work placements: Formal work placements as part of the curriculum are well-established in a number of undergraduate Engineering programmes, where the degree of MEng is awarded in conjunction with a Diploma in Industrial Training (DIT) after a 9-month supervised placement in relevant professional employment. More recently, our School of Management and Languages has developed a programme of competitively awarded Internships with some major graduate employers. Other formal models range from the Engineers of the Future programme with Forth Valley College, where the students in the College/University are simultaneously employed by participating engineering firms as Modern Apprentices, through postgraduate work-based learning in Civil Engineering, to the practice-based Engineering Doctorate (EngD). In addition, there are other less formal approaches which are encouraged and facilitated by the University, and which have widespread impact. Many of our students benefit from prizes, bursaries or scholarships awarded by businesses, brokered by the University, which often include the opportunity of relevant vacation work as part of the award. Through our Careers Service, we facilitate employers to advertise internships and we actively sign-post these to relevant students. Our Careers Advisory Service and the Research and Enterprise Services unit have developed policies and procedures, including standard contracts for work placements, to safeguard students and help ensure company expectations are met. These activities are embedded throughout the learning and teaching culture of the University. While we do not currently have any properly representative figures for the scale of involvement, we value the activity highly and expect it to continue to expand and diversify with increased recognition and support, including consideration of data-collection, recording and tracking more of the activities.


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4.3 Skills: The University is among the largest providers in Scotland of graduate and postgraduate level skills directly relevant to all the new Scottish Skills Investment Plans - in Engineering, Energy, Chemical Sciences, ICT and the Digital Economy, Finance, Food and Drink, and an important niche contributor in areas of Life Sciences. We contribute directly through the supply of graduates from programmes continually refreshed and updated with inputs from business and industry, professional and sectoral bodies, and through working with schools and colleges to help sustain and develop the pipeline of educational and training opportunities relevant to future skills needs at many levels. For example, we are active in the Oil and Gas Academy for Skills (OGAS), in partnership with Forth Valley College and the universities and colleges in the northeast of Scotland, to increase responsiveness and coherence in addressing education and training for those industries, both upstream and downstream and across the supply chains. We are aware of the new STEM Academy concept being developed by Edinburgh College with SFC support, and we expect to partner with Fife College in a similar initiative being developed in the neighbouring region. From the nature of our subject portfolio, additional funded places awarded by SFC in recent years for access and college articulation, as well as those explicitly linked to skills, have flowed towards growth in areas of high priority skills. We continue to signal to SFC our wish and capacity for expansion in areas of strategic importance to the economy. For example, EngineeringUK representing the country’s major technology businesses has recently updated its authoritative analysis of massive and still growing skills shortages in contrast with rapidly expanding business opportunities. Their report indicates the scale of the skills demand as a requirement either to double the annual number of new Engineering graduates in the UK within a decade, or increase Engineering and other related STEM graduates by 50%, plus a doubling of annual output of relevant Advanced Apprenticeships.

4.4 Engineering / Energy: In particular it is in various sectors of Engineering that Heriot-Watt probably has

the most distinct current opportunities. We continue to develop plans – building on successes of the acclaimed Engineers of the Future model, developed with Forth Valley College and Ineos at Grangemouth for much wider inclusion of industrial experience in our engineering education, and for further development of linkages and progression opportunities between technical skills training and the highest levels of graduate engineering education – the Graduate Apprenticeship concept. We are also exploring opportunities to develop an Apprentice Academy for the rail sector in partnership with Forth Valley and Fife Colleges related to our planned International Rail Technology Centre (see Aim 5 below). Scale-up and acceleration of this Apprentice Academy plan, in conjunction with the Colleges, university and industry partners, is a distinctive feature of our proposals in the City Deal of the Edinburgh region. These are significant scoping and consultative exercises prior to developing strategic proposals which we expect to discuss further with SFC and SDS as our plans mature.

4.5 Advanced Skills – Additional Taught Postgraduate Places: From 2013/14 the University was

awarded 70 additional places funded by SFC for MSc programmes relating to Energy, Financial Services, Food & Drink, and Manufacturing. The places are again fully utilised in 2014/15, including a notable increase in MSc study in Renewable Energy at our Orkney Campus, sustained over the last two years. The availability of these places, which allow the University to provide a fee-waiver bursary to eligible students, has contributed to bolstering recruitment of Scottish students to taught postgraduate study in the targeted areas.

4.6 Scottish Confucius Institute for Business and Communication: The University is proud to have

been selected by the Chinese authorities to host the first Confucius Institute to specialise in business and communication. Opened in mid-2014, the Institute is fostering further development of educational and research links between Scotland and China in the areas of business and management education and translating and interpreting, and also aims to help Scottish companies engage with China and increase the provision in Scotland of Chinese language learning for business purposes. An early example is the University’s new degree programme in International Business and Management and Chinese Language, introduced in 2014/15 in conjunction with our partner in the Confucius Institute, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics.

4.7 Internationalising the student experience: The single largest factor in the international experience of

all students at our Scottish Campuses is education in an environment where 35% of the overall cohort is from outside the UK, the second highest proportion among Scottish universities (after St Andrews), with international students coming from around 130 countries. Various international “outward mobility” opportunities are typically taken up by some 120-140 undergraduates per year, over 5% of the total year cohort, usually spending a year abroad at a partner university. The majority are students of languages or combining a modern language with another specialist subject; smaller numbers in many other subject areas are also involved. Regular destinations include Australia, Canada, China, India and USA, as well


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as a many exchanges in Europe under European Union schemes. At postgraduate level, Heriot-Watt won against considerable competition the co-ordination of several prestigious EU-funded ERASMUS-MUNDUS Masters programmes, in which highly select international student cohorts circulate among a group of European institutions leading in the relevant field. On a potentially much larger scale, we launched in autumn 2015, with Scottish Government support, our "Go Global" campaign to promote and facilitate mobility between and among the Scottish, Dubai and Malaysia Campuses, including emphasis on options for outward mobility from Scotland. With much of the University’s subject portfolio already offered in Dubai and in coming years in Malaysia as well as in Scotland, we are developing the opportunities for scaled-up international mobility for study and/or workplacement as a much more widespread part of the Heriot-Watt student experience, with obvious attractions and benefits for personal development and graduate employability.

4.8 British Sign Language: The University is currently receiving support from SFC in the form of 12 new

funded places per year to build up a full undergraduate degree programme in British Sign Language interpreting, the first and only such programme in Scotland, addressing a notable skills gap. In its fourth year in 2015/16, there are now 50 students on the course.

4.9 Enterprise education: Business methods, ideas and practices are embedded throughout the

University's technological and business-oriented subject portfolio and in learning and teaching practice. Entrepreneurial outlook and skills are fostered in specific curriculum components in a number of subjects and in extra-curricular activities such as enterprise clubs and a popular open lecture programme on enterprise/leadership featuring prominent and successful business-people, often alumni. While we do not currently set targets for student start-ups, specific advice and support for new graduate start-ups can be provided by through our Knowledge Exchange team. Well-developed business, enterprise and specifically business start-up skills training is an important part of our transferable skills provision available to postgraduates who sometimes have important roles in University-supported IP-based spin-outs. The University’s Edinburgh Business School is well known as the provider of the largest on-line MBA in the world (full-time on-line MBA listings), and a growing Professional Doctoral programme in Business Administration (DBA), offering highly effective and efficient business training opportunities used by many individuals and companies in Scotland.


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Aim 5: INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE RESEARCH BASE

- An improvement in the sector’s performance in REF2014 compared with RAE2008 - Scotland maintaining its share (relative to the UK) of research council and research charity income; and

increasing its share of income from EU Government Bodies. - Enhances research and KE collaboration. - An increase in the number of institutions and departments securing Athena Swan awards. 5.1 General: Research at Heriot-Watt University is widely recognised as being at the forefront of innovation

and enterprise, relevant to business and industry, and well matched to societal needs. We are ambitious to build on this approach at a global level to become one of the world’s top technology and business focussed research institutions. We have set the clear aim of strengthening our position as a leading technological and business university renowned for innovation in science, engineering and business, defining our presence on the international stage in key areas of world importance (eg energy, environment, manufacturing, finance). The strategy is to significantly enhance our position at the forefront of research, knowledge exchange, and research-led education, in the UK and internationally, by research intensification that covers the full spectrum from fundamental and theoretical studies through to research of immediate relevance to business and industry, building on our extensive business and industry links. As a small research-intensive university, the ambition is to grow research substantially while matching best international standards. To achieve a large expansion in world-leading research over the next 5 years the strategy combines further development of our existing research complement together with significant investment in the recruitment of established and future research leaders. Key objectives for research intensification are to:

• ensure all our academic staff are active in research and/or scholarship at internationally competitive levels while delivering research-informed teaching;

• expand the research base via proactive search, recruitment, development and investment in outstanding academic staff at all levels;

• intensify research via the development, training, reward and retention of excellent and internationally competitive researchers;

• provide a physical environment, infrastructure, technical support and levels of resource that promote an exciting, innovative, intellectually stimulating, internationally leading, and financially sustainable research environment;

• exploit our internal structures which favour inter- and multi-disciplinary work; • intensify streams of interdisciplinary research focussed on specific national priorities, such as

energy (oil, gas and renewable), environment (earth, marine, urban and water resources), health, digital technologies, tourism, the financial sector, manufacture and design;

• develop strategic research collaborations with significant academic and business partners; • link high quality research effectively with knowledge exchange to the benefit of the economy.

Specific programmes to deliver the strategy include: the ‘Global Platform’ recruitment initiative targeting the recruitment of 20 established or future research leaders per year; the Heriot-Watt "Crucible", building on the award-winning Scottish initiative pioneered by Heriot-Watt, providing high level personal development for academic leadership, in collaboration with research partners including Edinburgh University, Moredun Institute, British Geological Survey, Selex-Galileo and Renishaw; strategic alliance with University of Edinburgh; formation of Research Institutes in key areas.

5.2 REF2014: The results confirm major continuing advances in the research performance and competitiveness of the University and increased contributions to this Aim:

• 82% of research activity in Heriot-Watt is assessed as internationally competitive (4* or 3*) • ranking the University 22nd in the UK and 3rd in Scotland by this measure.

This performance is sustained with relatively high Research Intensity (82% of eligible staff were submitted), with positives in virtually all subject areas, and with confirmation of Heriot-Watt’s especially strong profile for Research Impact on the economy and society (45% assessed as 4* world-leading and 94% as 4* or 3* for Impact). Particular successes include the three areas where we formed joint submissions with the University of Edinburgh on the basis of established collaborations, accounting for over half Heriot-Watt’s academic staff included in REF. In terms of Research Power (Quality x Volume), indicative of a real critical mass of the very highest quality research, the joint submissions ranked


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• 1st in UK in the General Engineering Unit of Assessment (and 4th in UK among all Engineering UoAs combined)

• 2nd in UK in Architecture, Built Environment and Planning

• 5th in UK in Mathematical Sciences.

These results provide a strong validation of the successful delivery of Heriot-Watt’s research strategies in recent years, including vigorous academic recruitment of both established and new research leaders (almost a quarter of staff submitted to REF were classified as Early Career Researchers) and proactive engagement in strategic research collaboration. These successes in REF2014 are the platform for continuation, development and in some areas further acceleration of our Research Intensification strategy. As the results represent an increased share of Scotland’s internationally competitive research base, this surely deserves increased support through SFC’s research funding streams. The REF outcomes also give increased impetus to existing and new strategic initiatives in research and to ambitious targets for continuing rapid growth of research income and output.

5.3 Research excellence and intensification: Heriot-Watt’s “Global Platform” research-led recruitment programme targets recruitment of at least 20 established or future academic research leaders per year, additional to the University’s existing research complement, with some £3 million per year investment committed to this programme. Over the last couple of years we have significantly exceeded the minimum targeted recruitment number. Post-REF, Heriot-Watt firmly intends to maintain the programme of significant incremental growth through research-led academic recruitment, which has been a key enabler of recent progress and development in the University. SFC’s “Global Excellence Grant”, supplementary to the main RAE-based Research Excellence Grant, made a very helpful contribution to this stream of investment.

5.4 Strategic research and innovation initiatives

Sir Charles Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Technology: The project to re-locate the Scottish headquarters of the British Geological Survey to a purpose-built new centre on the Heriot-Watt University campus in Edinburgh was completed in early 2016. Work to develop a major new collaborative research centre is proceeding apace. The University’s recruitment campaign for an initial tranche of 10 new research leadership posts in the Centre was launched at the end of 2014 and is now bearing fruit with initial high calibre appointments. Meanwhile the partnership with the BGS continues to be consolidated. A general measure for the success of the project is the targeted growth of incremental income, from increased synergies as well as increased capacity in the Centre, from £1 million in 2013/14 to some £7 million per year by 2018, mainly from research. Early indicators of progress include the move to Heriot-Watt of a leading geoscience group to establish, with £3m support from Shell, the Shell Centre for Exploration Geoscience, followed by the selection of Heriot-Watt to co-ordinate the Natural Environment Research Council UK Doctoral Training Partnership for Oil and Gas. In partnership with BGS and 25 partners across the EU, US and Canada, Heriot-Watt is leading the major Horizon 2020 programme in marine sciences (ATLAS). The HWU share of this €9.1M project is €1.9M. Robotics: It is estimated that the application of advanced Robotics and Autonomous Systems could generate economic impact of $2-6 trillion per year by 2025 (McKinsey), with significant opportunities for the UK as recognised by BIS identifying RAS as one of the “8 great” innovation opportunities. To seize a share of the opportunities, Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Universities have created The Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, which has been selected by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to provide the new £6m EPSRC UK Centre for Doctoral Training in this area, building on a recent £6m award to the universities for capital equipment establishing the national ROBOTARIUM facility. Already some 35 principal investigators across Engineering and Informatics at Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh are engaged with some £35 million funding in projects with some 30 industrial partners. The universities continue to develop plans for accelerated development of the collaborative research and innovation centre to establish Edinburgh as a dominant hub in Robotics.

International Rail Technology Centre: The rail research community in the UK together with the industrial sector are currently in discussions with the intention of creating a partnership arrangement to establish a research and innovation centre in new rail technologies, including emphasis on high-speed rail. This will bring together the research expertise of the university participants with the technological capacity of the construction companies, train developers, railway-related component and equipment manufacturers and rail systems developers, ie the rail supply chain, with significant emphasis on high-


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speed rail. There is the major opportunity, supported by key industry players and by Scottish Enterprise, to establish the main physical research and testing facilities at Heriot-Watt, building on our leading research expertise in relevant areas in Civil Engineering. We are seeking to bring these plans to fruition during 2016.

5.5 Research income: The University's strategic plan, agreed in 2012, set the target to increase research

income from £23 million in 2011/12 to £40 million by 2017/18, a 75% increase over 5 years. Recent rapid growth of research income has slowed somewhat since 2012/13, with 2014/15 at just under £29m, but remains on track toward our medium-term target of £40m by 2017/18.

TARGET 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 by 2017/18 £21.2m £22.8m £26.9m £27.2m £28.9m £40m UK and international business and industry (>25%) and the EU (15%) are major sources second to the UK Research Councils (>45%), where we are making appreciable advances in NERC and MRC funding in addition to established strength with EPSRC. Medium/large-scale strategic and often collaborative awards are increasingly important including leadership of four new research training initiatives – EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training in Robotics, in Photonics, and in Mathematics, and the NERC Doctoral Training Partnership for Oil and Gas; and participation in three further EPSRC CDTs (Continuous Manufacturing, Condensed Matter Physics and Embedded Intelligence). In the EPSRC grand challenge funding for research in Quantum Technologies announced in late 2014, Heriot-Watt is a large part in Scotland’s relative success, with Heriot-Watt Physicists playing major roles in two of the four UK collaborative hubs, securing some £4 million future research funding. We are reviewing opportunities for EU participation for the coming Horizon 2020 agenda covering engagement, including leadership of consortia, and effective administrative support. More broadly, we intend to enhance our knowledge of overseas funding opportunities in connection with our overseas campus operations.

5.6 Research Integrity Concordat: The University is cognisant of the UK research funders’ Research Integrity Concordat published in 2012 and we continue to develop our practices and structures, guided by the Research and Knowledge Transfer Board and (Research) Ethics Committee, in accord with the Concordat.

5.7 Crucible: This is a professional and personal leadership and development programme, spanning all

academic disciplines, designed to enable early career academics (and equivalents in research institutes and SMEs) to come together to explore and develop their creative capacity and problem-solving potential. Scottish Crucible is led and managed by HWU with financial support from SFC, Scottish Government and the host HEIs. Since 2009 the alumni network of >150 individuals have created over 30 interdisciplinary / cross-institutional research endeavours, with Scottish Government supporting additional 'Projects for Scotland'. Heriot-Watt has also developed an institutional version of Crucible maintaining the same quality of provision that includes participation from our local strategic research partners, Edinburgh University, British Geological Survey, the Moredun research institute, and the firms Selex and Renishaw.

5.8 Women in STEM Subjects / Athena-SWAN: The crucial step of securing the Athena-SWAN Bronze

Award for the University was achieved in autumn 2013, we have also since received Bronze awards for our School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences and our School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. We are continuing to roll out the action plan, with senior strategic leadership by a Deputy Principal and operational management by a dedicated new appointment in January 2014. The high impact University-wide “Doing things differently” campaign was also launched in late-2014.

5.9 Research collaboration

A key strength of our approach in research is working in partnership with other top research universities, research institutes and organisations. This extends our reach and capabilities, particularly into interdisciplinary areas. Heriot-Watt personnel have led in the creation and development of the SFC pooling and network initiatives. We continue this leadership in Scotland for instance in the Scottish Crucible research leadership programme, and in the Converge Challenge in Knowledge Exchange, both initiated, organised and managed by Heriot-Watt with SFC funding. Internationally, Stanford in the USA, Macquarie in Australia, and Wuhan University in China stand out as valued research partners. Heriot-Watt is a partner in seven Research Pools:


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• ERPem (itself part of Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering, SRPe) • Marine Science and Technology (MASTS) • Chemistry (ScotChem) • Computer Science and Informatics (SICSA) • Economics (SIRE) • Physics (SUPA) • Policing research (SIPR).

We have also played a leadership role in the creation of the 17 institution Knowledge Exchange network Interface – Food & Drink. Heriot-Watt continues to benefit from the more successful pools (testified by joint REF submissions) and supports the sustainability of these beyond the SFC funding periods, particularly in relation to enhancing the graduate student experience, numbers and quality. Developing Scotland internationally as a prime location for PhD students via research pooling has yet to be realised. All our academic appointments with pooling funding are open-ended and sustained by the University after the completion of SFC pooling funding. In most pooling areas, inter-institutional collaborative approaches to strategic opportunities have become part of our mainstream practice and so are becoming increasingly self-sustaining. For those pools that have significant central management or activity costs, we will review to what extent we can contribute to sustaining these costs after the end of SFC funding. The main area of activity which we believe most strongly merits continuing SFC support is PGR studentships in the context of collaborative graduate schools. We would strongly support partial SFC funding for successful Pool Graduate School studentships and HWU would be prepared to match such funding. The Edinburgh Research Partnership in Engineering and Mathematics (ERPem) is at the core of our strategy to link with world renowned research organisations. ERPem has resulted in 2 joint REF2014 submissions with University of Edinburgh in General Engineering and Mathematics, with a third joint submission in Architecture and Planning via our close links with the former Edinburgh College of Art. These and other collaborative links with University of Edinburgh have led to the Heriot-Watt University/ University of Edinburgh Strategic Alliance approved by both University Courts. Our campus in Stromness shares a building with the European Marine Energy Centre and holds joint research grants with the University of the Highlands and Islands. Heriot-Watt is keen to expand this campus in full cooperation and partnership with other HEIs in Scotland to fully exploit Orkney as a world centre of wave and tide renewable energy. We also see great benefit in developing stronger collaborations with the Scottish Research Institutes. We have signed a formal agreement with the Moredun Research Institute, offering joint PhD studentships, equipment and sharing through a number of externally funded joint research projects. SFC previously funded HWU to lead an inaugural European Crucible (held in Dublin in 2012). We welcome SFC's further support of £270k over three years to sustain Crucible activities. In summary, key objectives for enhancing research collaboration are:

• fully develop and utilise our formal alliance with University of Edinburgh to best advantage for research;

• work with other Scottish research intensive institutions where regional interests or issues of proximity drive the agenda;

• maximise and extend the benefit of collaborative alliances such as research pools beyond the SFC period of support;

• promote existing and seek new strategic research alliances with leading companies, businesses and research institutes to drive high quality high impact research;

• expand international research linkages via strategic alliances and research collaborations resulting in joint publications, visiting internationally renowned researchers and exchanges;

• actively seek partnerships via our overseas campuses while ensuring coordination with our wider internationalisation strategy;

• use European partnerships more effectively to increase our presence and influence in EU programmes, notably the ERC Fellowships programme, and Horizon 2020.


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Aim 6: UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION

- A step change in the engagement of business and industry, through significantly enhanced HEI/industry collaborations including the establishment of Innovation Centres in sectors important to Scotland’s economy and the establishment of a single knowledge exchange organisation. .

- Maximise the potential for leverage of further investment at the UK and European level to further enhance HEI/industry collaboration, particularly for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

6.1 General: Heriot-Watt University's traditional strengths of coupling research excellence with effective

knowledge exchange are already well aligned with national policies for economic growth. We welcome opportunities to enhance this alignment and to sustainably increase our contributions to wealth creation and economic growth. Major features of the University's activities relevant to Knowledge Exchange include:

• exceptional developments in collaborative research with industry and business, embedding KE

in our academic culture, • leadership in the technology enterprise agenda – technology transfer, support for technology

company formation, and development of technology entrepreneurs – through the national Converge Challenge programme run by Heriot-Watt,

• research strengths closely aligned with all of the identified key national economic sectors including leadership in Energy, Manufacturing, Food and Drink, and Financial Services,

• the commercial Research Park forming part of the Edinburgh Campus, significantly multiplying the University's impact on the regional economy and employment.

Heriot-Watt's Knowledge Exchange interfaces are managed through the Research and Enterprise Services (RES) unit. With the advent in November 2015 of a new high-level appointment as the University’s Director of RES, and recruitment in progress for a new Deputy Principal for Research and Knowledge Exchange, we are likely to see in 2016 some fresh agenda-setting and new impetus relevant to this Aim, to be set out in a future Outcome Agreement.

6.2 To increase income industry and industry investment

The University’s Key Performance Indicator in this area is Research Income from Industry and Commerce, indicative of high level engagement with businesses in collaborative research-based innovation. Relative to academic staff numbers or as a proportion of research income, Heriot-Watt’s level of research funding from UK and, increasingly, international businesses is outstanding among UK universities. As with overall research income, significant recent growth was consolidated in 2013/14 and 2014/15. Clearly, the downturn in the oil and gas sectors constrains HWU's industrial income in the short term. TARGET 2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 by 2017/18 £4.7m £5.8m £6.2m £5.8m £5.8m £10m

6.3 To increase the level and enhance the quality of engagement with business and industry and

particularly Scottish SMEs We continue to foster an extensive programme of engagement with existing Scottish SMEs through a

range of channels, with emphasis on flexibility and responsiveness to the needs of individual companies and on building relationships with potential to move up the value chain from short-term problem-fixing to longer-term value-adding collaboration. One innovative approach is our series of Industry Days focused on particular business sectors, which continue to attract significant business participation and follow-through. In accord with our earlier targets, we are seeing increasing uptake of Scottish Innovation Vouchers for initial work with SMEs.

6.4 Contribution of the Scottish research base to key Scottish economic sectors

Heriot-Watt University is actively engaged in the skills and innovation agenda of all the identified key Scottish economic sectors, including for example rapidly developing new capabilities in Health-related technologies and the Tourism sector, as well as our established strengths and leadership in Energy – Hydrocarbons and Renewables; Manufacturing, Aerospace and Defence; Financial Services; Food and Drink; and Fashion and Textiles. A few major current developments and examples include: • Building on the track record of the EPSRC-supported Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre,

the related business-facing James Watt Institute (http://www.jwi.hw.ac.uk), Heriot-Watt has secured

http://www.jwi.hw.ac.uk/


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further EPSRC funding of ca. £5m, plus substantial industrial support, to lead a national Centre for Innovative Manufacturing. The Heriot-Watt technical contributions include our centre of excellence in industrial photonics and metrology, involving close collaboration with strategic partner Renishaw.

• ROBOTARIUM – As part of support for the “Eight Great Technologies”, £7.2 million funding from the UK BIS department was announced in autumn 2013 for a cutting-edge research facility in robotics to be established jointly between Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh universities. The Robotarium incorporates 50 world-leading researchers from 16 cross-disciplinary research groups in the two universities, with collaboration by 30 industrial partners.

• Our Institute for Signals, Sensors and Systems will shortly announce its leadership of major national collaborations in the defence sector and the healthcare sector.

• Our centre of excellence in Financial and Actuarial Mathematics underpins the SFC-supported Scottish Financial Risk Academy, and our standing alongside major UK and international players as the sole Scottish partner in the UK Knowledge Transfer Network in the Financial Services sector.

• The Heriot-Watt International Centre for Brewing and Distilling, and our key role in the SFC-supported Scottish Knowledge Exchange network in Food and Drink.

• In addition to our Institute of Petroleum Engineering, well-known as one of the premier international centres in relation to the upstream oil and gas sector, we continue to develop new strengths in relation to Carbon Capture and Storage, and in Renewable Energy in particular Marine Renewables and Photovoltaics.

We continue to broaden and deepen our engagement with Scottish-based companies in priority sectors and to support development of industrial sectors in relevant niche areas of the Scottish economy.

6.5 Engagement of research pools with KE activities

Heriot-Watt is an active participant in Scottish Research Pooling and in developing KE potentials of pooling, including:

Subject Research Pool Examples of KE activity Chemistry ScotChem Notably productive in securing company involvement in

support of SPIRIT PhD studentships Physics SUPA, SUPA2,

SU2P … Closely involved in instigating the KE strand of SUPA and hosting Business Development support. As part of the core group that developed the SU2P initiative, we have formed strong and effective networking arrangements and have a leading role in managing the programme as part of our growing collaboration in KE and research with Stanford in the US

Engineering (and Mathematics)

ERPem, SRPe Provide management to four of the Business Development posts within the Energy Technology Partnership. Contribute to co-ordination between ETP and European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC). HWU is a board member of ETP and actively involved in a large number of ETP initiatives.

Marine Science and Technology

MASTS Closely associated with the industrially related strands of marine technology, as well as involvement in the marine science and ecology strands

In addition, we are host to the Scottish Financial Risk Academy and also actively participate in the KE Network in Food and Drink. Heriot-Watt taff took a core role with Interface in shaping the Food and Drink Network. Through the Converge Challenge, we have opened our KE programmes to Pooling participants at other universities. We continue to play an active role in Research Pool leadership and strategy, supporting KE activity in pools and developing proposals for KE support.

6.6 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities for business and industry Our strategy for CPD is under review. We note that nowadays a very large part of CPD is individuals taking responsibility for their own professional development, perhaps facilitated by their employers, rather than company-specified training programmes. Through our portfolio of open, distance and flexible learning provision at Masters level in professional and technical subjects, Heriot-Watt is a very large


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supplier to this CPD market (we typically report some £6million in such income in the lSFC KT Grant return, and expect continuing growth in this area).

6.7 Scotland's low carbon economy Low carbon technologies and business models are important in our research and teaching portfolio, and contributing to low carbon economic development is high among our KE priorities. This is a central theme of our cross- disciplinary "Energy Academy" which has dedicated Business Development support from University investment and also benefits from our management of 4 business development posts on behalf of various SFC- and ERDF-funded programmes. The Energy Academy fosters interdisciplinary thinking and delivery across academia and with private and public sector players, with carbon-reduction and low carbon strategies as a major strand of activity. We are also playing a leading role in low carbon-related KE through other projects and programmes with Scottish and international partnerships, including:

• The Buchan Chair in Sustainable Engineering, which has attracted a large research group in

carbon capture and storage, will enable new developments in this field. • Heriot-Watt is leading the new UK-Canadian network between Heriot-Watt, the UK Biochar

Research Centre at the University of Edinburgh, ICFAR at Western University, McGill University and the University of Saskatchewan. The network will formalise the value of biochar as a Negative Emission Technology and investigate its potential as a technically and economically effective method of capturing carbon in a stabilised form which can also increase soil fertility and increase agricultural productivity.

• Our Institute of Petroleum Engineering's leadership of the Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage (SCCS).

• Our corporate engagement in securing Edinburgh as the location for important activities of the new UK "Green Bank", and our proactive engagement with the Green Bank.

• A recent agreement between the government of Lower Saxony and the universities of Clausthalen, Edinburgh, Gottingen and Heriot-Watt for collaborative research and knowledge exchange on shale gas. This has already resulted in ExxonMobil funding of ca. £880k for a collaborative research project on shale gas exploitation in the Lower Saxony region (which holds 14% of the world's supply), and which may have a bearing on any future exploitation of the potentially large shale gas reserves in Scotland.

• Major new research programmes and high-level academic appointments in solar/photovoltaic technologies.

• Developing collaborative strategies with the "Catapult Centre" for offshore energy and our links with the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) via our Orkney Campus.

6.8 To deliver easy access Intellectual Property (IP)

Our ethos has always encouraged easy access to IP. We promote our licensing opportunities on our website, with some available free of charge, and also on the "Easy Access IP" section of the collaborative university-technology.com site. We also facilitate uptake of IP opportunities through standardised contracts, the use of which we continue to champion.

6.9 To continue work with the Scottish KE organisation

We engage strongly with the Interface organisation, the relevant Scottish Innovation Centres and will engage positively with the new “Innovation Scotland” organisation. We will also continue to take forward collaboration in the area of Enterprise across all Scottish universities and research institutes through our leadership of Converge Challenge (with funding support from SFC and a number of universities) and our active engagement in university-technology.com. Heriot-Watt will continue to build our strong industry engagement via a successful model based on long-term trust and respect between our academic staff and industry personnel.

• Innovation Centres: the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) is now successfully established and fully operational in offices in Aberdeen, with project management provided by Heriot-Watt; similarly the Textiles Future Forum, is approved and progressing. Heriot-Watt is also a major contributor to the centres in Sensors and Image Processing, and in Industrial Biotechnology in which we host a major funded facility, and we expect to make significant contributions to the centre for the Construction sector.

• Converge Challenge is a national flagship programme in technology entrepreneurship, funded

by contributions from SFC and the research-intensive universities and run by Heriot-Watt.


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Through an annual programme culminating in a high-profile competition, it stimulates and encourages commercialisation of innovative technology from the research base in Scotland. The programme provides training, expert advice and mentoring for the entrepreneurs, show-cases success and facilitates access to commercial funding, thus contributing to accelerating development of high-tech high-growth new businesses in Scotland. The 2015 Challenge attracted a record number of high-quality entrants and planning is already advanced for the 2016 round.

6.10 Engagement with public policy and service providers, third sector and government

We also recognise and encourage the importance of these aspects of KE. We have a role in the Beltane project and we have annual competitions for the Principal’s Public Engagement Prize which is awarded at the same major public ceremony as the Converge Challenge. A number of the University's research projects and programmes and related consultancies provide outstanding examples of acknowledged high quality inputs to public policy including:

• the work of the Logistics Research Centre for UK government on freight transportation issues, the road network and "greening" logistics;

• numerous projects by our Urban Studies researchers on housing and related policies in Scotland and England;

• engagement of the Scottish Financial Risk Academy with the Financial Services Authority.

These and other examples will continue and increase, including development of practices for adequately recording and tracking the number and nature of such engagements.


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Aim 7: GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT, FINANCIAL& ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY, EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

- Institutions have in place appropriate and effective governance structures which ensure sound governance, internal control and risk management.

- Institutions’ governing bodies have clear ownership of institutional sustainability - Institutions invest in their estates for teaching and research at a sustainable level. 7.1 Effective governance

The University’s Court regularly reviews its effectiveness taking account of relevant best practice including the guidance of the UK Committee of University Chairs (CUC), the UK Corporate Governance Code, and the new Scottish Code of Good Higher Education Governance. The Corporate Governance Statement in the University’s Annual Report and Financial Statement for the year ended 31 July 2015, published in January 2016, confirms the activities undertaken throughout 2015 to ensure the University is on track to achieve full compliance with the Scottish Code. Assurance as to the effectiveness of governance, management, internal control and risk management is addressed by an active programme of (externally sourced) internal audit, an annual summary of whose work is also included in the University’s published statutory accounts. The Court and Executive regularly review a systematic set of institutional Key Performance Indicators relating to both academic performance and institutional sustainability. Constantly at 75%-80%, the proportion of the University’s income from non-SFC sources is among the highest in the Scottish sector, and this proportion is expected to continue to increase for the foreseeable future. In response to other issues flagged as of particular current interest to SFC in the context of the current Outcome Agreement:

7.2 Gender balance of Court: The University Chair of Court is Dame Frances Cairncross, CBE and as at

December 2015, the female:male balance in the 24-person membership of the University Court is 13:10 with one vacancy, a further positive change in the representation of women in the Court membership

7.3 Carbon reduction: In 2016 the University will launch a new Carbon Management Plan. This section

summarises the development of that plan, including establishing an authoritative new base-line for 2014/15 emissions, and committed and planned carbon reduction actions to 2019/20, leading to the target of a significant absolute reduction in carbon emissions, even after growth of the University’s campus footprint. In summary:

Sources Emissions

Scopes

Baseline tCO2e (2014/1

5)

Target tCO2e (2019/

20) Reduction t

CO2e Reduction

% Electricity, Gas, Other Fuels, Waste, Water, Travel All 21,584 18,994 2,590 12.0

Potential for further reductions, dependent on additional resources being available, is also discussed. Emissions Baseline: A new emission baseline for the University, based on 2014/15 data, was established during preparation of in 2015 first annual public sector climate change duties report:

Source Emissions

Scopes tCO2e

(2014/15) % Grid Electricity 2, 3 10,493.7 48.6 Natural Gas 1 7,110.0 32.9 Other Fuels 1 214.4 1.0 Waste 3 261.3 1.2 Water 3 339.5 1.6 Travel 3 3,165.1 14.7 Total 1, 2, 3 21,584.0 100

University growth and impact on emissions: Significant new developments at the Edinburgh Campus are scheduled for completion during 2015/16 and 2016/17 including The Charles Lyell Centre (Feb 2016) incorporating the Scottish HQ of the British Geological Survey; Oriam, Scotland's Sports Performance Centre (autumn 2016); and new halls of residence including 450 bedrooms (opening for 2016/17). The increase in the University estate associated with these and smaller developments has


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been modelled to increase the University’s greenhouse gas emissions from the use of electricity and gas by approximately 4.5%. This will occur despite the greatly improved energy performance of the new developments when compared with the existing estate. The University’s continuing growth therefore presents a challenge to the attainment of absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon Management Plan development: The University has developed a register of energy reduction opportunities which will form the basis of arrangements to identify, prioritise, plan and monitor projects underpinning the new Carbon Management Plan. Projects have been identified via internal expertise and external audits, including a high-level external audit of the Edinburgh Campus completed in 2015 in preparedness for potential participation in the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS). Technologies and initiatives featuring within the Carbon Management Plan will include:

• Retrofit of LED lighting Lighting is estimated to comprise at least 30% of electricity consumption across much of the University’s estate, while use of electricity represents nearly 50% of the University’s baseline emissions. LED lighting projects involving the replacement of older fluorescent lamps can frequently achieve a 50-60% reduction in electricity consumption and therefore represent a major carbon reduction opportunity which, particularly where lamps are retrofitted into existing luminaires, can be associated with very short payback periods.

• Improvements to building fabric Projects include the replacement of metal framed single glazing with high performance double glazed units and enhancement of wall and roof insulation.

• Further implementation of variable speed drives (VSDs) Many major pumps and fans where VSDs would be appropriate have already been fitted with the technology, but audits have identified further opportunities for implementation or re-commissioning of VSDs, for example in conjunction with air quality control for some air handling units.

• Boiler replacement and improved services for the provision of hot water. The Edinburgh Campus includes several legacy systems based around atmospheric boilers and hot water calorifiers which require replacement with more efficient technology.

• Sustainability engagement / energy awareness campaign The University aims to develop an improved campaign for communication with students and staff on all aspects of sustainability, with energy being a key area where improved engagement should bring improvements to performance.

• Fuller implementation of automatic meter reading and analysis of data using monitoring and targeting software Improved energy management information will complement initiatives to reduce energy consumption by further optimising use of the University’s Building Management System, for example in improving matching between occupancy and provision of building services and avoiding conflict between those services.

In addition to the projects described above (and a variety of smaller carbon reduction projects), the University is developing feasibilities surrounding renewable electricity generation and technologies that have the potential to make a significant contribution to reducing emissions at the Edinburgh Campus. These include a campus-wide heat network fed from a lower carbon source, potentially including gas-fired combined heat and power, waste water heat pumps (with heat from an adjacent Scottish Water sewer) or biomass boilers. The University is establishing an Energy Efficiency Recycling Fund with Salix Finance that will have a total value of £520,000. Projects for the first phase of investment under the fund are currently being developed in detail and committed under the Salix reporting system, with implementation planned to start later during the 2015/16 session. The first round of investments will mainly be used to implement LED lighting projects at the Edinburgh Campus, as the short paybacks associated with these projects should allow the fund to turn over fast, allowing second and subsequent round projects to proceed relatively quickly. Carbon reduction target: The University has modelled reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that should result from projects for which finance is likely to be available under the Salix Energy Efficiency Recycling Fund, via Long Term Maintenance and via the University’s Capital Programme. The model includes:


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• Projected increases in energy consumption associated with the new developments at the

Edinburgh Campus. • Projected annual values for future emission factors associated with grid electricity, to reflect

decarbonisation of electricity generation at a national level. The projected emission factor values included within the model have been chosen (at a reduction in Scope 2 emissions of 17 gCO2e/kWh/yr) to reflect modelling completed on behalf of the Committee on Climate Change (“Sectoral scenarios for the Fifth Carbon Budget” – November 2015) and a conservative version of the decarbonisation trajectory modelled by DECC (for example within “Updated energy and emissions projections 2015” – November 2015).

This modelling indicates that an appropriate absolute emission reduction target for the University, in relation to the emission footprint described in the University’s public sector climate change duties report, would be for a 12% reduction between the 2014/15 baseline and 2019/20, the final year of the plan. This represents an annual reduction of approximately 2.5%, although annual variations (for example in relation to weather which can increase or decrease total annual emissions within a range of at least 6%) mean that longer term figures will be more representative of the University’s underlying performance. The target would represent overcoming the effects of the current growth in the estate and going on to achieve a 12% reduction in emissions against the baseline year. The inclusion of projected electricity emission factors within the University’s emission reduction target setting process means that attainment of the University’s targets is to an extent contingent upon decarbonisation of grid electricity at a rate consistent with modelling completed for the Committee on Climate Change. Stretch targets: The emission reduction targets described here are based on the implementation of projects for which funding is or is likely to be in place during the period of the new Carbon Management Plan. High level feasibilities have however highlighted the potential for further significant reductions in emissions that might be achieved with further investment, including a recent feasibility for a gas fired CHP district heat network at the Edinburgh Campus which indicated potential for a reduction in emissions of 14.8% for an investment of approximately £10.4M. Were the University to be successful in implementing a technology with the potential to cause a “step change” in emissions it is suggested that targets under the new Carbon Management Plan could be revised to ensure that challenging targets remained in place. The University has engaged with the Scottish Futures Trust regarding the new Non Domestic Energy Efficiency (NDEE) framework as a potential mechanism for the development of detailed technical feasibilities for strategic low carbon investment. Finalisation of the Carbon Management Plan: The Estates Services function is currently consulting with the University’s Energy Academy to ensure that the finalised Carbon Management Plan draws as fully as possible on the substantial energy and climate change expertise available within the University’s Schools, in relation to both climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. (Contributions to the development of a low carbon economy through a number of major programmes of research and innovation are referred to in the relevant section, 6.7). When finalising the Plan the University expects to refer to green scorecard metrics under development by the Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE/SAUDE) to set normalised performance targets alongside the absolute emission reduction targets described here. The Plan will then be the subject of a formal annual review process co-ordinated with future mandatory annual public sector climate change duties reports.

7.4 Equality and diversity

The University’s culture is informed by values including 'valuing and respecting everyone', that articulate the ‘Spirit of Heriot-Watt’, embedding equality and diversity at the heart of the positive, creative and collegial partnership approach we cultivate between staff and students. Our clear priority area in the under-representation of a protected characteristic continues to be for women within the more senior academic levels. Since receiving the Athena SWAN Bronze award in 2013, we have also received Bronze awards for our School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences and our School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. We are continuing to roll out the action plan, with senior strategic leadership by a Deputy Principal and operational management by a dedicated new appointment in January 2014. The high impact University-wide “Doing things differently” campaign was also launched in late-2014.


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We have a solid base from which to build our equality and diversity commitments beyond the priority area of gender. We are the provider of the only British Sign Language interpreting undergraduate degree in Scotland with a strong base of deaf staff. Our expertise in this area and our commitment to developing awareness alongside fit for purpose support to existing and new staff influences our ethos of access to work in our staffing strategy. We are proud to have held the ‘Positive about Disabled People’ symbol for a number of years. The University is also developing activities to enable us to further progress our responsiveness to mental health related issues.


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Appendix 1 Summary of Baseline Data, Milestones and Targets

Baseline YEAR

2015/16 Milestone

2016/17 Milestone

3-5 year Target

AIM 1 Improve Access to HE for People from the Widest Range of Backgrounds

1a Increase Scottish-domiciled undergraduate entrants from most deprived neighbourhoods

SIMD20 2010/11 ~70, 8.5% 122, 11% At least 130

SIMD40 2010/11 ~205, 22% 301, 26% At least 330 At least 30% sustained

1b Increase Scottish-domiciled learners articulating from College

Full articulation 2011/12 55 120 > 160 Approaching 200

Associate Student starts in Colleges 60 60 >> 60

1c Increase, where under-represented, Scottish-domiciled entrants from various groups

Male : Female 2010/11 59% : 41% 55% : 45% n/a n/a (under review)

Care Leavers 2010/11 30 applications, 4 entrants

43 applications, 3 entrants

AIM 2 High Quality, Efficient and Effective Learning

2a Improve undergraduate student retention / progression

Overall 5yr avg to 2009/10 ~90% (slightly adverse for some demographics)

90% Tracking of

demographics eg SIMD40 developed

≥91.5% Ensure SIMD40 and

protected characteristic groups

not significantly adverse to average

Sustain at least 93%

2b Sustain highly positive performance in National Student Survey

Overall Satisfaction NSS2012 91% (UK upper decile)

89% NSS2015 (UK upper quartile)

Sustain at least UK upper quartile,

targeting upper decile

Sustain at least in UK upper quartile,

targeting upper decile

2c Maintain “effectiveness” judgement in QAA ELIR

ELIR 2010/11 “effective” in all areas “best practice” in a number of areas

ELIR 2015 “effective” in all

areas, “best practice” in a

number of areas

AIM 3 Coherent Provision of HE in Scotland

3a Provision of STEM places (for Scottish/EU students eligible for SFC funding)

UG 2012/13 2,885, 71% c3,250, 72% Sustain >70% within SFC cap

Sustain >70% within SFC cap

PGT 2012/13 265, 54% c265, 58% At least 265, ~60% ~300, ~60%


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Baseline YEAR

2015/16 Milestone

2016/17 Milestone

3-5 year Target

3b Specific initiatives

Built Environment Royal Academy of Engineering Centre of Excellence achieved

Modern Languages Maintain/expand both specialist and non-specialist language provision, including development of Chinese

Gaelic opportunities, as discussed

AIM 4 Skills and Enterprise

4a Sustain highly positive rate and quality of graduate first destination employment

Positive First Destination 94% 2012 graduates UK upper quartile

2014 graduates 95%, UK second quartile

Return to UK upper quartile

Sustain in UK upper quartile

Graduate Level Employment 80% 2012 graduates UK upper decile

2014 graduates 80%, UK upper quartile

Return to UK upper decile

Sustain in UK upper decile

4b Specific initiatives

Energy / Engineering Focus of Additional funded places for

Skills/ College Articulation activities

Develop collaborative plans/

proposals for scale-up, as discussed

Implement collaborative

plans/proposals for scale-up,

as discussed

Internationalising the Student Experience

~130, 7% of Scottish campuses full time

UG year cohort outwardly mobile

At least 130, at least 7% internationally

mobile

15% of full UG year cohort outwardly

mobile through, eg, scaled-up inter-campus mobility

AIM 5 Internationally Competitive Research Base

5a Secure the highest possible ratings in submissions to REF 2014

RAE2008 REF2014 FTEs submitted 350 352 Quality profile 4* 12% 4* 26% 3* 39% 3* 56% 2* 37% 2* 16% 1* 12% 1* 2%

“REF2020” preparedness



5b Increase research grant and contract income

2010/11 £21.2m 2011/12 £22.8m 2012/13 £26.9m 2013/14 £27.3m 2014/15 £28.9m

£35.1m £41.0m £40m pa by 2017/18


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Baseline YEAR

2015/16 Milestone

2016/17 Milestone

3-5 year Target

5c Specific initiatives

Sir Charles Lyell Centre for Earth and Marine Technology (BGS co-location)

Collaborative governance in place;

academic recruitment continuing;

building complete (Jan2016)

Investment / Return as per detailed plan, incl income growth

to £7m by 2018

5d Women in STEM / Athena SWAN

Athena SWAN Bronze Award achieved in autumn 2013

Athena SWAN action plan

implementation

Athena SWAN action plan

implementation

Athena SWAN Silver/Gold award(s)

in target areas

AIM 6 University-Industry Collaboration

6a Increase research grant and contract income from business and industry

2010/11 £4.7m 2011/12 £5.5m 2012/13 £6.1m 2013/14 £6.0m 2014/15 £6.0m

> £6.5m

> £7m

£8m pa by 2017/18

6b Uptake of Scottish innovation vouchers

2012/13 16 Target >20 Target >20 Target >25 pa

6c Scottish Innovation Centres

Progress Oil &Gas IC (OGIC); Progress Textiles Future Forum;

Continuing contributions to: Sensors & Image Processing IC, Industrial BioTech IC, Construction IC

AIM 7 Governance and Management, and Environmental Sustainability

7a Governance and Management

Compliance with Scottish Code of Good HE Governance

On track for compliance

Full compliance

7b Environmental sustainability (“carbon footprint”)

Energy emissions total kg tCO2e (Electricity, Gas, Other Fuels, Waste, Water, Travel) 2014/15 baseline 21,584

18,994 (2,590 12% reduction)


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Appendix 2 HWU Gender by Subject compared to UK Sector Quartiles

The compound bar chart on the following page compares the breakdown of a HWU subject with those of the institutions on the Upper and Lower Quartiles of the sector as a whole, based on the ranking of %Female and % Male. As shown in the key below, there are three bars for each subject:

• the top bar shows the %Female and %Male for the institution on the %Female upper quartile (which is therefore also on the %Male lower quartile, by reciprocation)

• the middle bar shows the %Female and %Male for HWU • the bottom bar shows the %Female and %Male for the institution on the %Female lower quartile

(which is therefore also on the %Male upper quartile, by reciprocation)

In terms of reading the charts: • If the left edge of the HWU bar lies between those of the other bars, then HWU is within the central 50%

of the sector (as shown by Example 1).

• If the left-hand edge of the HWU bar lies further to the left than that of the top bar, then HWU is not within the central 50% of the sector and has more Female students than 75% of the other institutions, as shown by Example 2.

• If the right-hand edge of the HWU bar lies further to the right of that of the bottom bar, then HWU is not within the central 50% of the sector and has more Male students than 75% of the other institutions, as shown by Example 3.


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HWU Breakdown by School and Subject HWU Compared to UK Institutions Quartiles

source: HESA Student Return 2013/14

#N/A

52.3%

77.1%

#N/A

45.7%

16.4%

8.6%

28.9%

9.1%

#N/A

46.3%

28.2%

44.7%

79.8%

#N/A

21.5%

16.1%

45.5%

#N/A

93.6%

#N/A

41.4%

11.6%

#N/A

43.0%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Biology [411]

Psych [388]

Chem [256]

Physics [226]

ElecEng [220]

ChemEng [370]

MechEng [449]

Mgt [1,044]

Economics [255]

Acc&Fin [293]

Lang [257]

CivEng [382]

Building [143]

Planning [99]

Design [544]

Maths [637]

Comp [251]

HWU Overall

Life

Sci

ence

sE

ngin

eerin

g &

Phy

sica

l Sci

ence

sM

anag

emen

t & L

angu

ages

Ene

rgy,

Geo

Sci

,In

frast

ruct

ure

&S

ocie

ty

Text

iles

&D

esig

n

Mat

h an

dC

ompu

ter

Sci

ence

s

Female Male

100% 50% 0% 50% 100%

Biology

Psych

Chem

Physics

ElecEng

ChemEng

MechEng

Mgt

Economics

Acc&Fin

Lang

CivEng

Building

Planning

Design

Maths

Comp

HWU Overall

Female Male

Scottish Funding Council Apex 2

97 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HD

T 0131 313 6500 F 0131 313 6501

www.sfc.ac.uk

Outcome Agreement between Heriot-Watt University and the Scottish Funding Council for AY 2016-17

On behalf of Heriot-Watt University:

Signed:

Print name:

Professor Richard Williams

Position:

Principal & Vice-Chancellor

Date:

20th June 2016

On behalf of the Scottish Funding Council:

Signed:

on behalf of Print name:

Laurence Howells

Position:

Chief Executive

Date:

28 June 2016

Documents

Heriot Watt University Outcome Agreement 2016-17 anniversary of the granting of our Royal Charter, Heriot-Watt is an established university operating in a UK framework andlooking to