Leadership Foundation

The Strategic Finance Programme is for executive and/or senior managers who are looking to build on their financial and legal literacy in higher education to enable them to operate confidently in the complex area of financial resourcing issues. Participants will leave the programme with improved articulacy in financial terminology, and be better equipped to contribute to their institutional growth, efficiency, strategic decision making and financial sustainability.
 

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will have:

• Improved their financial knowledge in order to be able to contribute more effectively to strategic discussions and enable their institutions to achieve its strategic ambitions
• Improved their understanding of the financial factors and risks in strategic decision making
• Consolidated their basic understanding of key financial concepts
• Been introduced to some of the financial instruments, legal structures and approaches currently available and have explored their benefits and risks, primarily from a financial perspective.

Topics Covered 

• Financial Strategy - how the finance strategy supports and enables the Institution Strategy. Introducing the concept and implications of financial sustainability and the key ratios used to measure relative sustainability.
• Analysing and understanding accounts - reading and interpreting accounts and the use of ratios to analyse accounts, including how they are calculated, what they can indicate and pitfalls in using them.
• Business and resource planning - introducing tools and techniques such as payback and discounted cash flow to support decision making; appraising projects and assessing their viability; allocation of revenue and capital resources.
• Understanding key sources of university funding - discussing external funding alternatives and types of bank finance; the roles of external advisors.
• Partnerships - introducing the risks and benefits of a range of operating models including overseas partnerships.

Residential Modules 

Module One will include:

• Creation of an income and expenditure account, balance sheet and cash flow drawing from the information covered in the e-learning package
• Consideration of long term institutional and financial strategies
• Options and techniques for resource allocation and planning
• Introduction to financial decision making techniques and making investment choices
• Exploration of options for university budget setting

Module Two will include:

• Follow up on the homework task involving feedback on discoveries made
• Discussion around coping with financial uncertainty and understanding risk in decision making
• A look at commercial ventures and the legal structures for delivering he at home and internationally
• A funder and regulator’s view of sustainability
• A case study focusing on the application of learning from both modules

Additional Learning

Participants will also benefit from access to a self-assessment tool and e-learning package to help support them through the programme and ensure that all participants arrive on the programme with the same level of knowledge of basic accounting practice. This is to compensate for any differences in financial experience and address any gaps in understanding.

Furthermore, to support the contextualised application of knowledge and skills as a leader within complex organisational environments, there will also be two additional 90-minute sessions per participant, which can be accessed following the completion of module 2. 

Therefore we would expect a commitment of 4 face-to-face residential days, and an extra day for self-directed learning and the additional 90-minute sessions, so a commitment of 5 days in total from participants. More information on the self- assessment tool, e-learning package and additional 90-minute sessions can be found under the ‘Essential Resources’ tab. 

Programme Delivery

Delivery across both modules will be a mixture of facilitated discussion, lecture format (limited), individual and group working around financial scenarios with guest speakers throughout.. There will be opportunities for networking and for discussion of current challenges at home institutions.

The Strategic Finance Programme is for senior leaders in universities and higher education colleges who will need to engage with the strategic issues as much as the financial ones, and in a position where they are able to implement what is covered on the programme. Please note this includes both academic and professional services senior leaders.
 

We envisage that the ideal participants will include deputy vice-chancellors, pro-vice chancellors, deans and above, heads of schools, heads of professional services departments, and directors. Participants should also be part of, or reporting to the university’s senior management team as part of their role.
 

Application Deadline: Monday 12 February 2018

Application Process

When submitting your application online, you will be asked the following mandatory questions*:

• Please describe your current role (including who you report to) and the financial responsibilities it entails
• What would help you to feel more comfortable in carrying out those responsibilities?
• What personal or professional benefits do you expect to gain from the programme and how will these be applied to your future career aspirations?

Following the application deadline, applications are passed to a selection team, who will meet and discuss the applicants forms; measured against the answers to the questions above. Applicants should expect to hear back within 2 weeks of the application deadline or within 5 weeks of their application submission (whichever is sooner) on whether their application has been successful. Please note, if you are accepted on to the programme, you will be asked to complete a self assessment to enable us to gauge current familiarity with various financial concepts and terms, and ensure the programme is tailored to accommodate your needs. This will need to be completed online prior to the start of the programme.

For more information on the programme or for any questions please contact Kyra Ingrao, Marketing and Communications Manager.

* Please note: your answers to the mandatory questions above is the supporting documentation to your application so as long as you answer all three, you will not be asked to submit additional documentation once the application has been sent.

Melvyn Keen, Programme Director, Strategic Finance Programme 

Melyvn's thirteen years at Middlesex University began as Finance Director; he was appointed Deputy Vice-chancellor five years later and went on to become Deputy Chief Executive. In addition to leading the university's financial strategy, he was also responsible for the university's estate, IT, registry, library and international partnerships. Prior to his work at Middlesex, Melvyn served University of Cambridge as Interim Finance Director. 

Before working in higher education Melvyn had finance roles in industry and worked for many years with Price Waterhouse and Andersen Consulting as a business strategu and financial systems consultant. For the four years immediately before moving to higher education, he developed and delivered management training for Price Waterhouse consultants. 

Melvyn served as Trustee of CASE Europe from 2009 - 2015; appointments from October 2015 include Trustee of NFER (National Foundation for Educational Research) and non-executive director of Professional HE Services Ltd. he holds a Degree in Engineering Science from Keble College, Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Melvyn is also a previous participant of the Leadership Foundation's Top Management Programme. 

Andrew Unitt, Co-facililator, Strategic Finance Programme

Andrew was the Chief Financial Officer at the University of Nottingham until July 2016. As well as leading the financial strategy he was also responsible for IT, Procurement, Research support and Business engagement and the commercialisation of intellectual property.

Prior to working in higher education, Andrew was a finance director for 20 years in a wide range of industries, including consumer goods (Dairy Crest, Boots Healthcare International), retail (Halfords, Boots The Chemist, Focus DIY), and professional services (Experian). Prior to that he worked as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse. He has held a number of non-executive directorships in both the public and private sectors.

Andrew has a degree in Maths from St John’s College, Cambridge and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Gill Ball OBE, Co-facilitator, Strategic Finance Programme 

Gill, a qualified accountant spent the majority of her career within Higher Education with the last 20 years as Director of Finance at the University of Birmingham until she retired from that role at the end of 2014.

She developed a deep interest in the finances of the wider sector through supporting a number of HEFCE initiatives such as the Financial Sustainability Strategy Group (FSSG), the TRAC Review Group, Sustainability Metrics Group (SMSG) and the team working on “Financial Sustainability and Efficiency in Full Economic Costing of Research in UK HEIs” which produced the Wakeham Report- all of which impacted on the sector’s sustainability agenda.

From 2002 until she retired, Gill worked with the Leadership Foundation delivering the “Strategic Financial Management in High Education” module for 31 of the cohorts of the Top Management Programme which she enjoyed very much.

Gill remains committed to the higher education sector by continuing as a member of FSSG and SMSG, mentoring senior staff in a number of Universities, operating as a member of the Science and Technologies Facilities Council- one of the UK Research Councils- and working as an advisor to Accelerus Education which is developing models for reviewing efficiency of teaching and supporting leadership teams in implementing change.

She is an associate of the Leadership Foundation and supports a number of programmes for sector colleagues.

Gill was awarded an OBE for services to Higher Education in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2012.

We are pleased to confirm a number of additional resources available to further support all participants of Strategic Finance Programme:

Self-assessment Tool

This self-assessment is intended to provide both you and the programme facilitator an indication of your current financial knowledge.

It will test your accounting knowledge to provide a baseline for the facilitator as to your and the groups' current knowledge and also assess how familiar you are with some of the more advanced topics you will encounter on the Strategic Finance Programme.

The purpose is to be supportive and developmental. Please note: you will not be expected to answer all of these questions correctly and questions left unanswered or answered incorrectly will have no bearing on your place on the programme. Rather, the self-assessment has been developed to provide a true reflection of your level of understanding on financial matters to ensure the programme is tailored to meet your needs.

This self-assessment must be completed pre-programme and more information on how to access this resource will be circulated once your place on the programme has been confirmed.

E-learning Modules

As part of the programme, we have created an e-learning package consisting of three modules that will cover some basic finance and provide participants with a good foundation to draw upon throughout the programme. These e-learning modules introduce three key financial statements and will help participants develop a solid foundation of basic accounting knowledge.

It should take approximately 2-3 hours in total to complete the e-learning, though note progress can be saved and revisited at any time and does not need to be completed in one session.

Completion of the e-learning modules must take place before the start of the programme and is essential for module one of the programme which will begin with some of the basic accounting principles covered in the e-learning.

Coaching Sessions/ Finance Advisory Sessions

To support the contextualised application of knowledge and skills as a leader within complex organisational environments, participants will also be able to access two x 90-minute one-to-one sessions following the completion of module two:

• Accredited Professional Leadership Coaching: accredited professional coaching to provide participants with feedback about leadership style to improve leadership skills; help participants apply the knowledge they have gained from the programme; build confidence and; help participants to negotiate the relationship between strategic leadership and operational issues.
• One-to-one Finance Advisory Session: providing participants with the opportunity to talk about a current issue they have within their institution, or to cover specific financial concepts they would like more support on

Participants can choose to have one of each of the above sessions or two of the same, depending on their preference and needs. More information on these sessions will be available during the programme.