Steven Logie

Supporting Statement (May 2011)

The challenges faced

This election to the Court takes place during a period of almost unrivalled challenge for the University sector and for Edinburgh Napier itself. In the external environment: the UK public sector funding crisis; changes to student fees in England; the introduction of new visa arrangements affecting international students; uncertainty caused by the impending Scottish election; and an increasingly competitive HE market, all mean that the Court must make key decisions to help guide the University through an extremely difficult period. Internally the University continues to go through significant change via the Avoidance of Redundancy (ARC) process, which has had a direct and profound effect on many of us.

Non-academic staff undertake an important and sometimes under-recognised role in contributing to the successes of the University and will be involved directly in responding to the challenges highlighted. I therefore believe it is more important than ever to have an effective non-academic staff representative on Court, willing to reflect the matters affecting colleagues and to constructively challenge decision making.

My priorities if elected

In deciding to stand for election I have taken the issues above into account and considered what I would - and realistically could - do if elected given Court has no responsibility for detailed operational issues. From my experience as a school governor, I believe Board/Court members can be most effective if they concentrate on specific important issues, so if elected I would primarily focus on three:

• Ensuring the Court invests the University's resources effectively for future success, whilst seeking ways of avoiding a repeat of recent compulsory staffing reductions.
• Ensuring that the University addresses the issues highlighted in the staff survey in order to attract, develop, support, value and retains its key asset - its staff.
• Ensuring the importance of maintaining and developing our student experience is reflected in discussions.

My experience

I have an excellent understanding of the role of Court, its ability to influence the University's strategic direction, and the issues affecting the University as for the last two years I served as Clerk to Court. In that role I worked closely with the Chairman of Court, its lay-members and members of the Executive (PEG) to ensure the Court operated effectively. I project managed a governance review of the operation of Court and its committees, implementing changes to enhance effectiveness. During that time I also clerked ARC and heard first-hand the difficult issues being debated.

I have worked at Edinburgh Napier since July 2002 and have been fortunate to work within two faculties and one professional service - FHLSS, Corporate Affairs and now FECCI. Through my various roles I have worked closely with a wide range of staff, at all levels, from across the university and understand the diversity of what we do and many of the challenges we face as professional services and faculty administrators. If elected I would use this experience to try and represent accurately the views of the non-academic electorate.

Thank you for reading this and for considering voting for me; it's very much appreciated.